The Investigative Interview Method
6. Successful investigative interviewers are professional, ethical, and honest with whom they interview
4.2 Eight Phases of the Investigative Interview
4.2.5 Phase V: Discussion
◾ Demonstrate confidence and do not allow challenges to cause you to doubt the accuracy of your information.
◾ Do not allow the subject to think you are a decision maker.
◾ Do not make promises you cannot keep.
◾ Do not offer immunity.
◾ Demonstrate compassion, not arrogance.
Throughout, manage your tone and body language, remain firm and confident.
Demonstrate empathy and avoid any appearance of being judgmental. Look the subject in the eye. Use body language that is sympathetic, but confident. Observe the body language and behavior of the interviewee. Move into his intimate space in order to communicate your compassion. However, do not touch him. Do not pat his knee, put your hand on his shoulder, or touch his hands. Some interview methods call for this form of intimacy at this moment. DO NOT do it. Unwanted touching may later be regarded as battery. Battery in many jurisdictions is consid-ered both a crime and tort. To commit it exposes the interviewer to both prosecu-tion and a lawsuit. DO NOT touch the interviewee.
During this entire exchange, the interviewer and his witness should be taking notes. The date, start time, and the time of any breaks should be documented.
All notes should be neat and legible. They should be retained and become part of the permanent case file. Even if one’s notes are used to generate a report and then destroyed, the interviewer or fact finder could face the claim of spoliation. If your organization has a policy of not retaining investigative notes, change the policy.
Destroying one’s notes also creates the appearance that the interviewer/fact finder is hiding something. It also could give rise to the claim the interviewer is unprofes-sional and acted unethically. Here’s how.
Suppose the interviewee cooperated fully, made an admission, but did not pro-vide a written statement regarding his guilt. After the interview, the interviewer pre-pares his final report and destroys his notes. Postdiscipline, the interviewee recants his admission and claims he’s innocent. He asserts the interviewer also thought he was innocent and was observed documenting it in his notes. He now demands the interviewer produce his notes to prove it. Do you see the problem? Without his notes, the interviewer has only his final report. Absent other circumstance (a wit-ness for example), the matter is reduced to deciding who to believe, the accused or the unprofessional, paid fact finder.
◾ Taking office supplies is something everybody does. When was the last time you took some home?
◾ It is not uncommon, for employees to borrow things from work. One of the more common things we have learned that employees borrow around here is .
◾ What was the smallest thing you ever borrowed from work?
◾ Would I be truthful if I told management that the smallest thing you have ever taken without permission was a ?
Tip: Note that the interviewer did not use the word “theft” or “steal.” Instead, he uses terms such as “took without permission” or “borrow.” Words matter, so choose them carefully.
Depending on circumstances and the fact pattern of the case, the interviewer should employ a variety of question types to develop additional information.
Examples include:
◾ Open-ended questions: Tell me what happened next?
◾ Closed-end questions: Exactly how many did you actually take?
◾ Expansion questions: You said you left the office at noon. Were you alone?
◾ Directive questions: Wouldn’t you agree with me that honesty is the best policy?
◾ Leading questions: Did you see him touch her and then remark about her blouse?
◾ Final questions: Is there anything else we should discuss?
Tip: Contrary to popular belief, leading questions are permissible. When used properly, they can expand the amount of information developed and sometimes take the interview in an entirely new and useful direction.
The interviewer also should seek the following information:
◾ Why did the subject do it?
◾ Was it his idea or was it suggested by someone else?
◾ What else did he do or say?
◾ Were there any witnesses?
◾ Who else was involved?
◾ Who else knows about it?
◾ Can the items taken be returned?
◾ Get the subject to name names.
Note that once the subject has made his admission and provided all of the per-tinent details surrounding his misconduct, he should be questioned regarding the misconduct of others. If he is knowledgeable of others and their transgressions, he should be thoroughly questioned about them. The interviewer should systemati-cally document the who, what, when, where, how, and why regarding each indi-vidual of whom the subject has knowledge. Use Appendix 5 to capture that which you are told regarding others. This information can then be added to that already developed during the second phase of the investigation. In doing so, the investiga-tive team can make real-time decisions regarding the interview of others and con-tinue to build its information base.
Here are few questions the interviewer should always ask:
◾ Who else should we talk to (and why)?
◾ Who should we talk to next?
◾ Who else knows about this?
◾ How can you (we) prove that?
◾ Do you have any physical evidence (email, photos, images, notes, cards, gifts)?
◾ How might have we conducted a better investigation?
◾ Does your supervisor know about this?
◾ Who in management knows about this?
◾ Did management ever engage in this?
◾ How could we have learned about this sooner?
◾ Do you think it will happen again, and, if so, why?
Are here are a few questions the interviewer should never ask:
◾ Coercive questions: Would you be willing to cooperate in exchange for leniency?
◾ Intimidating/coercive questions: Would you rather tell the truth or go to jail?
◾ Inappropriate questions: Why didn’t you tell your wife you wanted to leave her?
◾ Ignorant questions: Do you think all people from behave that way?
◾ Stupid questions: Who do you think is going to win the game Sunday?
Once the interviewer is satisfied that he has obtained all the information he is able to get, he should move closer to the desk at which he and the interviewee are sitting. Confidently, he should ask the interviewee two more questions: Are you prepared to make a commitment that, as long as you work here, you will never do these things again, and, if so, are you willing to put that commitment in writ-ing? Revealing his written statement checklist (see Appendix 6, Written Statement Checklist), he will now walk the interviewee through it.