Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

instructors can determine how much of the initial training the agents retained.
However, the number of agents who come through FLETC for advanced training
is minimal compared to the number of agents who graduate from the Center’s
basic training program. Moreover, FLETC conducts no systematic review of
the students who do return for advanced training, and therefore only anecdotal
evidence of the success of the initial training program is available. Even then the
students who return for advanced training are generally a self-selected group that
is likely to be more interested in interrogation techniques — and thus more likely
to have retained the initial training.
In addition, as with all of the other law enforcement training programs, there
has been no systematic, empirical study of the efficacy of the techniques taught
at FLETC; it appears that most of the support for the techniques comes from
anecdotal evidence. This is in part because, without videotaping interrogations,
it is impossible to determine what techniques are actually used in the field.
The FLETC instructors, noting the number of studies on British interrogation
techniques, indicated that they would welcome videotaping of interrogations to
determine what is and is not working, and also to establish how much of their
training even makes it to the street, regardless of efficacy.
Section 8. Boston Police Department — Homicide
Division 585
The Boston Police Department conforms to the general trend among local
law enforcement organizations, focusing its training on the procedural aspects of
interrogation. The officers and detectives receive very little, if any, formal training
on interrogation techniques. The majority of the interrogation training that does
occur is through the Reid School, which is offered as an option to detectives, most
of whom do not choose to participate. The department has no formal manual on
interrogation techniques, not even for divisions such as the homicide unit. Deputy
Superintendent Daniel Coleman, who is currently in charge of the homicide unit,
is putting together a protocol and checklist for interrogation techniques.
This situation can be contrasted with the issuance of guidelines and
extensive training that immediately followed the decision in Commonwealth
v. DiGiambattista, 586 which requires electronic recording of all interrogations
conducted in Massachusetts and threatens a jury instruction that casts doubts
on police procedures if no such recording is made. The difference results from
the department’s primary goal, which is to solve cases and obtain convictions,
which in turn leads to an emphasis on the procedures necessary to protect suspects’
constitutional rights, avoid suppression of evidence and suspect statements, and
thus create the easiest path for a jury to convict. The detectives we interviewed
noted that the procedures and training in place regarding interrogation are
not geared toward training interrogators to elicit statements, but instead are
585
Unless otherwise referenced, the information in this section is derived from interviews with
Deputy Superintendent Daniel Coleman of the Boston Police Department, who is also Commander of
BPD’s Homicide Unit, conducted on 11 and 21 March 2005.
586
442 Mass. 423 (2004).
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