Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

then advises him of his Miranda rights. The detective then has the suspect sign
a waiver of 6-hour arraignment, and informs the suspect of the opportunity to
have the entire encounter recorded electronically. If the suspect elects to have
the interrogation recorded, the detective re-reads the Miranda rights while the
tape is recording. Even if the suspect declines to have the encounter recorded,
the detectives are trained to get at least the declination on tape. According to
Coleman, over 80% of suspects in general waive their Miranda rights, while only
about 30% of murder suspects do so.
Once the procedural requirements are met, the interrogator moves to rapportbuilding.
The rapport is built less on false friendship than on empathy, kindness,
and professionalism. The straightforward techniques used by the department
include dressing in a suit and tie to let the suspect know that the detectives are
“not your average cops” and that they mean business; shaking hands with every
suspect (also giving the detective an opportunity to examine the hands); speaking
courteously and professionally, avoiding use of the suspect’s “lingo”; keeping the
conversation friendly, casual, and not overly official; offering the use of the phone
in a casual manner (e.g., “Do you want to let someone know where you are and
that you are okay”); and offering food and drink. The detectives believe that this
approach is effective with homicide suspects because most of them understand
the situation they are in; moreover, suspects will only cooperate if they believe
the detective is not hiding anything from them, and can immediately spot attempts
to downplay or minimize the crime and will respond in kind by “playing” with
the interrogator.
Once rapport has been established, detectives prefer not to use trickery or
deceit, though they are allowed to do so under Massachusetts law. According
to them, beyond just being “wrong” this is also ineffective, since it insults the
suspect’s intelligence and can often be exposed; it also is one of the interrogation
tactics that they say can most easily lead to false confessions. At the same time,
they do recommend using trickery to induce lies. This would include, for example,
asking a suspect who has just mentioned a certain road about the tollbooth on
the road, knowing full well that there is no tollbooth on the road and trying to
catch the suspect in a lie. However, the detectives report rarely, if ever, making
up evidence, witnesses, or statements that do not actually exist. At the same time,
they are careful not to give the suspect any information he does not already have,
saying that the entire interrogation procedure is “like a poker game.” This is done
both to keep the suspect from knowing what the detective knows and to prevent
the suspect from appropriating the information for possible false confessions.
The more experienced detectives argue that anyone who goes into an
interrogation looking for a confession is inexperienced and “an idiot.” Such
an approach leads to bias in the interrogation room, where what is needed is
objectivity. The goal of an interrogation should be to gather information, and lies
can often be as useful in an eventual prosecution as a confession. The detective
should look for information that can advance the rest of the investigation,
including information that the suspect does not realize might be useful for the
investigation and prosecution, such as whether he is right-handed or left-handed,
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