Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

law enforcement around the country, like the Boston Police Department, which
does not train its officers and agents in interrogation techniques at all. Local
law enforcement departments do not offer the training in the police academies
because most officers will never conduct interrogations, and those who then
become detectives or other investigators are almost never required to receive
additional training in this area. Reid and other outside courses are sometimes
offered as options to those who want them, requiring the officers or agents to take
the initiative to pursue such training. Some individuals, such as Lieutenant Pierce,
take advantage of the opportunities. However, although we hypothesize (and
anecdotal evidence suggests) that the majority of investigators do not participate
in such voluntary training, there has been no empirical study to determine the
actual percentage of senior officers who are trained in interrogation techniques
through such voluntary programs. Such training may be somewhat superfluous,
however, as many senior law enforcement personnel develop and use many of the
techniques used in Reid and its variations on their own. Deputy Superintendent
Coleman argues that Reid does not offer anything that people with brains, people
skills, and some experience could not figure out on their own. He and others
note that senior investigators may not be able to identify the various steps of the
interrogation but generally use the same approaches: thorough pre-interrogation
investigation, rapport-building, and some sort of theme presentation. However,
everyone seems to know an investigator who uses ineffective techniques (e.g.,
trying to overwhelm the suspect with the evidence), which suggests that, though
intuitive to some, these tactics do not necessarily flow from pure logic.
In sum, the few law enforcement agencies consulted for this project that
provide any training on interrogation at all do so through very general programs.
Like the practical literature upon which they are based, the training programs fail
to account for, or recommend adjustments in response to, the various confessioninducing
factors identified by available empirical research. The training takes a
“one-size-fits-all” approach and fails to instruct interrogators on how, or whether,
to adapt the techniques to differences in age, ethnicity, or culture of the suspect,
seriousness of the offense, or strength of the available evidence. Aside from the
dearth of nuance, there is no available evidence to evaluate whether the techniques
upon which training is based actually yield favorable results in practice. None of
the agencies we contacted had any idea of whether the training they offered was
in fact implemented by agents and, if it was, whether it worked.
PART III: RECOMMENDATIONS AND
IMPLICATIONS
FOR TERRORISM
Section 13. Recommendations for Future Research
Further theoretical and empirical independent study is needed in the following
areas:
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