Criminal Investigations

1
Criminal Investigations

• Chapter 6
• Obtaining Information

2
Objectives

• What the goal of interviewing and interrogation
  is
• What sources of information are available to
  investigators
• What a sources of information file is and what it
  contains
• How to improve communication
• What the major barriers to communication are

3
Objectives Cont.

• What the characteristics of an effective
  interviewer or interrogator are
• When and in what order individuals are
  interviewed
• What rapport is and how to establish it
• What basic approaches are used in questioning
• What two requirements are needed to obtain
  information
• What the differences between direct and indirect
  questions is and when to use each

4
Objectives Cont.

• What technique is likely to assist recall as well
  as uncover lies
• What a statement is in a criminal investigation
• What the Miranda warning is and when is it given
• What the two requirements of a place for
  conducting interrogations are
• What third-degree tactics are and their places in
  interrogations are

5
Objectives Cont.

• What restrictions are placed on obtaining a
  confession
• What significance a confession has in an
  investigation
• What to consider when questioning a juvenile
• What a polygraph is and the acceptability of its
  results in court
• What the polygraph role is in an investigation
  and if the results are admissible in court

6
Introduction

• Knowledge obtained through both questioning and
  physical evidence are equally important
• Most solved cases rely on both physical evidence
  and information obtained by interviewing and
  interrogating
• Physical evidence can provide a basis for
  questioning people about a crime
• Questioning can provide leads for finding
  physical evidence

7
Sources of Information

• Three primary sources of information
• Reports and records, including those found on the
  internet
• Persons who are not suspects in a crime but who
  know something about the crime or those involved
• Suspects in the crime

8
Sources of Information Cont.

• Sources of information file contains the name and
  location of people, organizations and records
  that may assist in a criminal investigation
• We have progressed from the stone age to the
  agricultural age to the industrial age to the
  information age
• Knowledge is doubling every two-and-one-half years

9
Reports and Records

• Important information source is the records and
  reports of your police department, including all
  preliminary reports, follow-up investigative
  reports, offense and arrest records, modus
  operandi files, fingerprint files, missing
  persons reports, gun registrations and wanted
  bulletins
• Examine the suspects prior MO and all laboratory
  and coroners reports associated with the case

10
Reports and Records Cont.

• Check bank , loan and credit companies, delivery
  services, hospitals and clinics, hotels and
  motels records
• IRS and taxi companies
• Each time you locate a source whose records are
  helpful add it to your sources of information file

11
Optical-Disk Information-Storage System

• Allow law enforcement agencies to store
  information in a single location on a single disk
  and to index and recover it very rapidly

12
The Internet

• Is an endless and extremely valuable source of
  information
• Some helpful websites for law enforcement
  agencies are
• CopNet-Police Resource List
• Law Enforcement Online

13
Complaints, Witnesses, Victims, and Informants

• Complainant is a person who requests that some
  action be taken
• Witness is a person who saw a crime or some part
  of it being committed
• A victim is a person injured by a crime
• An informant is anyone who can provide
  information about a case but who is not a
  complainant, witness, victim or suspect

14
Cell Phones

• Are enhancing the safety of citizens and officers
  
• The transfer of calls from the police
  communications center to the officers allows
  officers to talk directly to victims and
  complainants
• They can greatly speed reporting of information
  related to crimes

15
Caller ID

• Records the number of the telephone from which a
  call is placed, even if the call is not answered
• Provides the date and time of the call and can
  store numbers in its memory when more than one
  call is received
• Can be helpful in cases involving telephoned
  threats, kidnapping, and so on

16
Suspects

• A suspect is a person considered to be directly
  or indirectly connected with a crime, either by
  overt act or by planning or directing it
• Field interview is questioning that occurs
  spontaneously on the street
• It is especially advantageous to officers to
  question someone suspected of involvement in a
  crime right after the crime has occurred

17
Interviewing and Interrogating

• Most of an officers time is spent meeting people
  and obtaining information from them, a process
  commonly referred to by two terms interview and
  interrogating
• Interview is questioning people who are not
  suspects in a crime but who know something about
  it or the people involved
• An interrogation is questioning those suspected
  of direct or indirect involvement in a crime

18
Interviewing and Interrogating Cont.

• The ultimate goals of interviewing and
  interrogating are to identify those responsible
  for a crime and to eliminate the innocent from
  suspicion

19
The Interview

• Interviewing is talking to people, questioning
  them, obtaining information and reading between
  the lines
• Interview witnesses separately if possible
• Interview the victim or complainant first
• Then eyewitnesses
• Then people who did not actually see the crime
  but who have relevant information

20
Advanced Planning

• Many interviews at least initial ones are
  conducted in the field and allow no time for
  planning
• If time permits plan carefully for interviews
• Review reports about the case
• Learn as much about the person you are going to
  question before you begin the interview

21
Selecting the Time and Place

• Arriving at a crime scene you may be confronted
  with a victim or witness who immediately supply
  pertinent information
• Recall that these res gestae statements are
  extremely valuable
• Witnesses are usually best able to recall details
  immediately after an incident

22
Beginning the Interview

• How an interview is started is extremely
  important
• The interviewee and the interviewer size each
  other up
• Mistakes in the beginning can establish
  insurmountable barriers
• Identify yourself
• Show your credentials
• Ask general questions about the persons knowledge
  of the crime

23
Establishing Rapport

• Rapport is an understanding between individuals
  created by genuine interest and concern
• Is probably the most critical factor in any
  interview
• People who are approached civilly may volunteer a
  surprising amount of useful information
• Give reluctant witnesses confidence by
  demonstrating self-assurance
• Give indifferent witnesses a sense of importance
  by explaining how the information will help the
  victim
• Rapport is enhanced by careful listening

24
Networking an Interview

• Network is a body of personal contacts that can
  further ones career
• Establishes relationships between people and
  between people and their beliefs
• Produce a context in which to understand a person
• These networks may be social, ethnic, cultural,
  business, professional/occupational, religious,
  or political

25
Interviewing Techniques

• Two basic requirements to obtain information are
  to listen and to observe
• How people act during an interview can tell as
  much as or more than their words
• Signs of unusual nervousness, odd expressions,
  rapid breathing, visible perspiration, or highly
  agitated state are causes to questions the
  persons truthfulness

26
Direct vs. Indirect Questions

• Direct question is to the point, allowing little
  possibility of misinterpretation
• Indirect question is those that skirt the basic
  questions - use sparingly

27
Repetition

• Is the best way to obtain recall and to uncover
  lies
• Often repeating what someone has told you helps
  the person provide additional information
• Sometimes it confuses the person being
  questioned, and if the original version was not
  true, another reputation will reveal this fact

28
Reluctant Interviewees

• Appeal to a reluctant interviewees reason or
  emotions
• Most people who are reluctant to be questioned
  respond to logical or emotional approaches
• Logical approach is based on reason
• Emotional approach addresses such negative
  feelings as hate, anger, greed, revenge, pride
  and jealousy

29
Cognitive Interview Technique

• The interviewer tries to get the interviewee to
  recall the scene mentally by using simple
  mnemonic techniques aimed at encouraging focused
  retrieval
• Reconstruct the circumstances
• Report everything
• Relate the events in a different order
• Change perspective

30
Characteristics of an Effective
Interviewer/Interrogator

• Adaptability
• Self-control and patience
• Confidence and optimism
• Objectivity
• Sensitivity to individual rights
• Knowledge of the elements of the crime

31
Enhancing Communication

• Prepare in advance
• Obtain the information as soon after the incident
  as possible
• Be considerate and friendly
• Use a private setting
• Eliminate physical barriers
• Sit rather than stand
• Encourage conversation
• Ask simple questions one at a time
• Listen and observe

32
Emotional Barriers to Communication

• Include
• Ingrained attitudes and prejudices
• Fear
• Anger
• Self-preservation

33
Statements

• Is a legal narrative description of events
  related to a crime
• It is more or less formal, exact, detailed
  presentation
• Begins with an introduction that gives the place,
  time, date, names of the people conducting and
  present at the interview
• Name, address and age of the person questioned is
  stated in the main body of the statement

34
Statements Cont.

• The body of the statement is the persons account
  of the incident
• A clause at the end states that the information
  was given voluntarily
• The person making the statement then reads and
  signs it

35
Closing the Interview

• End each interview by thanking the person for
  cooperating
• If you have established good rapport with the
  interviewee, the person will probably cooperate
  with you later if needed

36
The Interrogation

• Questioning suspects is usually more difficult
  then questioning witnesses or victim
• Once identified and located, a suspect who is
  involved in a crime may make a statement,
  admission or confession that, corroborated by
  independent evidence, can produce a guilty plea
  or obtain a conviction

37
The Miranda Warning

• Before interrogating any suspect, you must give
  the Miranda Warning
• The Miranda warning informs suspects of their
  rights. Give the Miranda warning to every suspect
  you interrogate
• Custodial interrogation is questioning initiated
  by law enforcement officers after a person has
  been taken into custody or otherwise
  significantly deprived of freedom
• A waiver is accompanied by a written or witnessed
  oral statement that the waiver was voluntary

38
The Public Safety Exception

• Ruling that police may interrogate a suspect
  without first giving the Miranda warning if a
  public threat exists that might be removed by
  having the suspect talk

39
Foreign Nationals and the Vienna Convention Treaty

• Because of concern that foreign nationals charged
  with crimes in the US will not fully understand
  their rights within the complex US legal system,
  this treaty gives such people the right to
  contact their consulate in the event of their
  arrest
• When officers fail to inform foreign nationals of
  this right, any evidence or statements that
  result from a subsequent interview or
  interrogation may be ruled inadmissible by a court

40
Selecting the Time and Place

• Conduct interrogations in a place that is private
  and free from interruptions
• Ideal conditions exist at the police department
• Allow enough time this helps with the importance
  of patience and persistence in interrogations
• Generally the chances of obtaining a confession
  increase 25 percent for every hour up to 4 hours
  of interrogation

41
Starting the Interrogation

• Do not become so wrapped up in yourself and your
  quest for information that you overlook body
  language that may indicate deception, anger, or
  indifference
• Nonverbal communication

42
Establishing Rapport

• Know why the crime was committed
• It takes skill to obtain information from those
  involved in crime
• Make no promises, but remind the suspect that the
  court decides the sentence and is apt to be
  easier on those who cooperate

43
Approaches to Interrogation

• Interrogation techniques include
• Inquiring directly or indirectly
• Forcing responses
• Deflating or inflating the ego
• Minimizing or maximizing the crime
• Projecting the blame
• Rationalizing
• Combining approaches

44
Approaches to Interrogation Cont.

• Using persuasion during interrogation
• Ethics and the use of deception

45
Third-Degree Tactics

• Physical force, threats of force or other
  physical, mental or psychological abuse are
  illegal
• Any information so obtained, including
  confessions, is inadmissible in court

46
Admissions and Confessions

• An admission contains some information concerning
  the elements of a crime but falls short of a full
  confession
• A confession, oral or handwritten, must be given
  of the suspects free will and without fear or in
  response to threats, promises or rewards
• A confession is only one part of an investigation
• Corroborate it by independent evidence

47
Questioning Juveniles

• Obtain parental permission before questioning a
  youth
• Do not use a youth as an informant unless the
  parents know the situation

48
Evaluating and Corroborating Information

• Do not except information at face value
• Verify all information
• Cross- check a story

49
Scientific aids to Obtaining and Evaluating
Information

• Polygraph
• CVSA
• Hypnosis
• Truth serums

50
Polygraph and CVSA

• The polygraph scientifically measures respiration
  and depth of breathing, changes in the skins
  electrical resistance and blood pressure and
  pulse
• The polygraph is an instrument used to verify the
  truth, not a substitute for investigating and
  questioning

51
Polygraph and CVSA Cont.

• Although the results are not presently admissible
  in court, any confession obtained as a result of
  a polygraph test is admissible
• CVSA measures stress in the micro tremors of the
  human voice
• Both reduce investigative cost

52
Hypnosis

• Hypnosis is a trancelike condition physically
  induced in which the person loses consciousness
  but responds to a hypnotists suggestions
• Is used with crime victims and witnesses to
  crimes, not with suspects
• You must have written consent from the subject
  and permission from the prosecutors office

53
Truth Serums

• Are fact-acting barbiturates of the type used to
  produce sleep at the approximate level of
  surgical anesthesia
• The courts do not officially recognize truth
  serums or their reliability nor do they admit the
  results as evidence

54
Use of Psychics

• Use of psychics in criminal investigations has
  been popularized by television shows
• Although use of psychics in criminal
  investigations is controversial, some agencies
  are willing to consider any possible lead or
  source of information