Topic 10: The Field Interview
Attending the scene of an event, the first immediate field interview may be as simple as asking an apparent victim or a probable witness, “What happened here?”. This simple question serves several purposes for the investigator.
First, it shows that the investigator is not making any investigative assumptions based on what is visible to him or her at first glance. With this question, the person being asked is prompted to supply their own version of the event, as they saw it. This pure version will assist the investigator in developing a picture of the event, and it will provide a context allowing the investigator to classify the speaker as a victim, witness, suspect, or an uninvolved party.
If the person the investigator questioned turns out to be the perpetrator, and the investigator has no other evidence that suggests this person should be a suspect, any statement made by that person would likely be considered a spontaneous utterance and may be admitted in evidence without a voir dire. For example, consider a situation where an investigator arrives at the scene of a street fight where a man has been fatally stabbed. The investigator asks one of the men standing nearby, “What happened here?” and the man immediately says, “I killed him and he deserved it.” This statement would be considered a spontaneous utterance and would likely be admitted as evidence without the usual voir dire. Once this self-incriminating statement has been made, the suspect would need to be immediately arrested and provided with the Charter warning and caution before any further statements could be pursued through additional questioning. Clearly, once a suspect is identified, they can no longer be considered as a witness.
If no one is immediately identifiable as a suspect at the scene of an event, it is reasonable for the investigator to proceed with classifying the persons present as possible witnesses. As discussed earlier in this chapter, to classify the witnesses, the investigator must consider the nature of the evidence that the witness can provide:
• Direct evidence of the eyewitness, which is evidence of seeing the criminal event occurring and perhaps even identifying the suspect; or
• Circumstantial evidence of the corroborative witness, which is indirect evidence of events, physical evidence, timelines, and spatial relationships that can assist the court in reaching a logical presumption of how the crime occurred and who was responsible.
Interviewing a witness is not just a simple matter of hearing their version of the events. There are many factors that can come into play in determining how credible a witness is. Following the initial field interview, and once the event is under control, it is important to take the witness’ formal statement at the earliest available opportunity.
Taking the witness statement should be conducted using the best technology available given the circumstances.
If audio and or video recording devices are not available, or obtaining them would cause an unreasonable delay in getting the witness statement, a written statement should be taken. No matter how the witness statement is recorded, it should be the goal of the investigator to obtain the best, uninfluenced, and unbiased version of events from a witness.
Like the threat of conformity being induced by a dominant witness, a witness can also be influenced by leading questions asked by an investigator. Some witnesses are so eager to assist in solving the crime that they will attempt to guess the answer to a leading question instead of admitting that they do not know the answer. The caution here is to avoid asking leading questions. Leading questions are questions that a witness might be able to infer the answer by the nature of the wording. An example of a leading question would be:
“Did you see Larry pick up the revolver and shoot Bill in the head?”
This leading double question can be answered yes or no, and it also supplies the witness with a significant amount of information that the witness can infer about the details of the event. These may be details that they would not have previously known. From this question, the witness could infer that Bill was shot in the head, the weapon used was a revolver, the suspect in the shooting was Larry, and the revolver was picked up from somewhere. A better and more appropriate initiation of the statement would be: “Did you witness an event today? Tell me what you saw.”
Although this open-ended approach to statement taking is more time consuming, the investigator at least knows that they are not planting any ideas or words to influence the witness’ account of the event. Taking a statement in this manner is known as taking a pure version statement. A pure version statement needs to be the witness’s best, uninterrupted narration of the events, as they recall it. As the witness recounts their best memory of the event, the investigator must resist the temptation to intervene and ask clarifying questions on the points being revealed.
Clarifying questions like the question used to start an interview can be leading and can influence the witness’
statement.
As the witness recounts their pure version of the events, the investigator should be taking notes on points to be clarified once the entire statement is completed. Those questions should remain as open-ended as possible. So, if the witness has stated in their pure version of events, “I walked into the room and that is when I saw the shooting happen”, the clarifying question should be an open-ended prompt, such as, “You said you saw a shooting happen, tell me more about that.”
There are many different techniques and strategies for witness interviewing that cannot be addressed in this short book as part of an introduction to investigations. The best advice for new investigators for the interviewing of a witness is learning to be patient and allow the witness to tell their story in their own time and in their own way. Avoid the human tendency of trying to assist and interact with the speaker by asking questions, filling in the
blanks, and clarifying things while the story is being related. The more effective interview technique is one where the witness can exhaust their memory and relate the events to the best of their ability without interference and the contaminating influence of questions that might derail their train of thought.
As discussed earlier, it sometimes happens that a witness or a reporting victim will turn out to be the perpetrator of a crime. In these cases, allowing the person to provide their full uninterrupted statement can produce incriminating indicators or even evidence of involvement. There is a tendency for criminals who fabricate their report of a crime to make sure they are adding information in their statement that helps eliminates them as a suspect. This can include unsolicited alibis for their whereabouts and their activities at the time of the reported event. When a witness supplies this type of information without being prompted, it can be an indicator of personal involvement in the criminal event. Any such voluntary explanations of personal activities should be recorded carefully and closely scrutinized to confirm the validity of facts. Follow up questions to unsolicited explanations should include seeking the names of independent witnesses who might be able to corroborate the witnesses account.
In the case where an investigator suspicious that a reporting witness or victim may be the perpetrator of the crime, there is no obligation to reveal that suspicion until evidence exists that allows the investigator to form reasonable grounds for belief. If further investigation determines that the statement is a fabrication, this may be sufficient circumstantial evidence to require a warning for at least the offence of mischief for making the false report. In such circumstances, a Charter warning and caution are appropriate before additional questioning is undertaken.
Taking the Witness Statement Taking the Witness Statement
The written, audio, or video statement of a witness taken by a police investigator will become the permanent record of events as seen by that witness. The police investigator will use the content of that statement as a reference document in the construction of search warrants and in support of reasonable grounds for belief to lay an arrest. The crown prosecutor will use the statement to construct their case for presentation to the court and for pre-trial disclosure of the evidence to the defence counsel. The statement will serve as a document from which the witness may refresh their memory of events to provide accurate testimony to the court.
Considering the foregoing list of uses, the witness statement needs to be as accurate and complete as possible. The standard format used to begin a witness statement is as follows:
This is the statement of witness’s full name taken on date and time atlocation where taken by name of person taking or recording the statement.
At the conclusion of the statement, it must be signed by the witness. If the statement is audio and or video recorded, the foregoing preamble needs to be used to start the statement, and once the statement is transcribed, the witness should sign the hard copy transcription.
Witness Identification of a Suspect – Photo Lineups and Live Lineups Witness Identification of a Suspect – Photo Lineups and Live Lineups
Beyond taking a statement, one of the most common forms of obtaining information from a witness is the practice of having witnesses identify a suspect through the viewing of photographs or photo lineups. This kind of after the fact identification of a suspect will be subjected to scrutiny when it is presented in court. Strict protocols must be followed to demonstrate that the process was conducted in a fair and unbiased fashion. Under no circumstances would an investigator ever present the witness with only a single photograph or a single lineup suspect and ask if
this is the suspect. Additionally, under no circumstances should an investigator ever state that the suspect is one of the persons in the lineup.
In the practice of presenting photo lineups, the photos are arranged in a series of eight pictures or more that are permanently mounted into a series of numbered windows of a special photo lineup file folder.
The suspect’s photograph is one of the eight pictures and the remaining seven photos are called “distractor
photos”. To be fair, these distractor photos need to be reasonably similar to the suspect photo in terms of gender, age, race, head hair, facial hair, and glasses. When the photo lineup is presented to the witness, there should be instruction by the investigator that the suspect of the investigation may or may not be in this photo lineup (i.e.
“please look at all the photos carefully and only select the number of a photo if you are certain it is the suspect you saw at the time of the event”).
Like photo lineups, live persons may be used to conduct a suspect identification or a suspect in custody. These live lineups are more difficult to create because they require the cooperation of the suspect and if the suspect does something during the viewing that could draw attention to him; it could prejudice the lineup process. As with the photo lineup, the distractor subjects need to be selected to be fairly similar to the suspect; however, unlike photo lineups, the live lineup requires the additional elements of ensuring that everyone is of similar height, weight, body shape, and dress. You cannot put the suspect dressed in a shirt and tie into a lineup with distractors wearing blue jeans and tee shirts.
Another means of suspect identification is permitting the witness to page through volumes of criminal file photos that are part of the local police photo collection. This technique is sometimes used when there are no identifiable suspects and the witness is reasonably certain that they will recognize the face of the suspect if they see it again.
The negative aspects of this strategy are that it can take a great deal of time, and a witness can sometimes become confused by the process and overloaded with the viewing of too many faces, causing an eventual loss of confidence in making a proper identification.
Summary Summary
This chapter examined the broad range of issues that must be considered by an investigator in relation to the collection of information and evidence from witnesses to a crime. These issues range from the way witness evidence is classified and validated to the way witnesses are assessed and evaluated to determine their ability to give evidence and the credibility of the evidence they give.
The chapter illustrated the processes required for proper witness management during investigations. These task processes of witness identification, classification, credibility assessment, and proper interviewing practices in statement taking are all components of witness management that demonstrate professional standards applied by a criminal investigator.
Study Questions Study Questions
1. What is a collaborative witness?
2. What is an independent witness?
3. Can an accused person be compelled to testify regarding a crime they have been involved in?
4. Are all persons considered competent to testify?
5. What is witness credibility assessment?
6. What concerns should an investigator have about dominant witnesses?
7. What should an investigator do in the case of an active event where immediate in-depth interviews are not possible?
8. Is it possible to have a witness statement in something other than written form?
9. What are two negative aspects of having a witness attempting to identify a suspect by paging through volumes of criminal file photos?