2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

280
Anecdotal evidence suggests more could be done to improve the quality of
interviews in regards to the amount of information adjudicators require in making wellinformed
clearance determinations. Existing evidence suggests that much of the pertinent
information that is either volunteered by the subject or is provided in response to specific
questions is not followed-up with probing questions. Without the appropriate level of
follow-up questions, the Report of Investigations (ROI) completed by investigators and
forwarded to adjudicators provides less information on which adjudicators can base their
clearance decisions. Interviews conducted in a standardized manner that involve asking
specific follow-up questions of security relevance as well as questions that mitigate3
security concerns can go a long way in assisting adjudicators in making clearance
decisions by providing them with additional and necessary information. Without this
information, adjudicators often require investigators to conduct a second interview to
obtain the missing information before making a clearance determination. However,
because of time pressures to close cases (make a clearance determination), adjudicators
might be reluctant to send investigative cases back into the field for follow-up interviews.
Method
The development of the enhanced interview questions consisted of the following
four steps.
1. Reviewing the available research literature on the interviewing methods used
across industries. Key points of this research include: Longer questions tend to
produce longer responses and more reporting of undesirable behaviors; use of
probe questions that obtain additional information are effective in motivating
respondents to reveal personal information; structured interviews are the more
valid than unstructured interviews.
2. Reviewing the investigative manuals of several federal agencies that are based
on Executive Order (EO) 12968, Access to Classified Information (1995)
which sets the standard for eligibility to classified information. Each agency
applies EO 12968 standards and guidelines to their respective investigative
manuals differently based on the particular mission of the agency. This review
was conducted in order to determine: a) what, if any, recommendations exist
on what questions should be asked when interviewing the subject and
workplace sources and b) to provide the basis for making the enhanced
interview questions applicable to each agency.
3 Information that explains, refutes, moderates or lessens issue-relevant information.
45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003