Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

Finally, Sturgeon mentioned that although videotaping interrogations in
Britain has drastically reduced the number of complaints filed by subjects against
interrogators, some suspects are more reluctant than others to talk when being
recorded. However, British law allows for recorders to be turned off at the
suspect’s request.
Section 11. Videotaping Interrogations: The Law and
Practice
Law enforcement officials around the country are currently debating whether
or not videotaping of custodial interrogations should be required. Electronic
recording of interviews and interrogations, when feasible, has been required by
judicial opinion in Alaska since 1985 598 and in Minnesota since 1994, 599 although
neither specifies videotaping. Illinois recently passed a statute requiring electronic
recording, when feasible, of all custodial interrogations of suspects, 600 a District
of Columbia statute requires it for all suspects in violent or dangerous crimes, 601
and a Maine statute requires electronic recording of interrogations for serious
crimes. 602 The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts recently ruled that while
it would not require electronic recordings of interrogations, where such recording
did not take place “the defendant is entitled (on request) to a jury instruction
advising that the State’s highest court has expressed a preference that such
interrogations be recorded whenever practicable, and cautioning the jury that,
because of the absence of any recording of the interrogation in the case before
them, they should weigh evidence of the defendant’s alleged statement with
great caution and care.” 603 As noted previously, this has led to all interrogations
conducted in Massachusetts being recorded whenever feasible. 604 Various similar
legislative proposals are currently or have previously been before legislatures
around the country, including in New York City, Maryland, Connecticut, Oregon,
and Missouri. 605
Electronic recording of interviews is quite common in other countries. As
noted, Great Britain has required it since 1984. 606 Australian police must taperecord
their interrogations where feasible, and in federal prosecutions, where
a contemporaneous recording cannot be made, the law requires an electronic
598
Stephan v. State, 711 P.2d 1156 (Alaska.1985).
599
State v. Scales, 518 N.W. 2d 587 (Minn.1994).
600
725 ILCS 5 § 103-2.1, effective 18 July 2005.
601
D.C. ST § 5-133.20, effective 4 April 2003.
602
Maine LD 891.
603
Commonwealth v. DiGiambattista, 442 Mass. 423, 447-48 (2004).
604
Interview with Boston Police Department Deputy Superintendent Dan Coleman, in Boston, MA
(11 March 2005) [hereinafter Coleman Interview].
605
See Report on the Electronic Recording of Police Interrogations, submitted jointly by the
American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section and the New York County Lawyers’ Association,
(2002), 9, at http://www.reid.com/pdfs/NYlegalarticleonvideotaping.pdf, for a non-updated list, site
access 22 April 2005) [hereinafter Report]
606
Police and Criminal Evidence Act of 1984.
223