Strategic Use of Information in Suspect Interviews

1. The Strategic Use of Information During Interviews with Suspects: An Interviewer's Perspective Dr. Coral Dando Prof. Ray Bull University of Leicester Cjd28@le.ac.uk

2. SUE Research • SUE enhanced the detection of deception BUT • Scenarios were straightforward • Guilty or not guilty • Small amounts of evidence – 3 • Interviewee did not have to construct his own deception • No account of difficulty for interviewer in applied settings

3. Questions ? • SUE technique is mainly effective for pinpointing liars? • Protect the innocent? • Complexity of the case material? • Cognitive demands on the interviewer?

4. Interviewer's Perspective • Offence not yet committed or in progress • Offence has been committed - No compelling evidence • Multiple items/clusters of information • Combine to indicate suspicion

5. D-Scent Research Project • EPSRC funded - Develop techniques that combine technologies for geographical positioning, communication signal analysis with forensic psychology techniques for detecting deception during interviews with suspects • Counter terrorist agenda - Detecting deception during interviews • Suspicion of wrong doing - no strong evidence • Complex data - interviewees something to hide

6. Cutting Corners Game • Groups of 4, individually • Either a builder or a terrorist - Tasked with building an Olympic stadium BUT terrorist agenda was to blow up the stadium while appearing to be a builder • Moved around a board completing various tasks e.g buying construction equipment & taking it to the building site etc. • Laptop to record moves and buy items, as required • First person to complete task paid extra money (motivation)

7. Phased game • End of each phase investigator was able to see what items had been purchased (but not by whom) • Weigh 1 van • Check the contents of 1 van • Upon completion of game all completed a post game questionnaire • All interviewed

8. Interviewing Suspects • SUE from an interviewer's perspective • Minimise Cognitive load for the interviewer • Protect the innocent – something to hide • Maximise cognitive load - detect deceptive interviewee - complex data

9. Interview Process • Conversational exchange • Discover the truth • Information gathering • Military maneuver - verbal combat – gain advantage

10. Military Strategy & Tactics • Strategy governs the prelude to a battle while tactics control its execution. • Strategy - distribute and apply the means to fulfil the end • Large scale the big picture • Tactics - smaller scale, the individual elements

11. Individual - Treated each piece of evidence individually More immediate? Limit deceptive interviewee's options An expedient toward gaining the desired outcome Tactical Approach

12. Strategic Approach • Global - Big picture • Evidence is not presented until the closing phases of an interview • More demanding for the interviewer • Advantages take longer to be realized • Interviewee is less constrained in responding - construct deceptive account

13. Interviews • Early - (baseline/control) potentially incriminating evidence presented in the initial stages of the interview procedure, pre free account • Late- (Strategic) potentially incriminating evidence presented at the end of the interview procedure, post questioning phase (Hartwig et al., 2006) • Gradual - (Tactical) Drip feed presentation of potentially incriminating evidence, post free account, during the questioning phase

14. Early Tactical Strategic Explain Explain Explain Disclosure of evidence & Free Free Account Free Account Account Questions (one at a time) Questions (one after another) Gradual/incremental disclosure Questions & Challenge Disclosure of evidence & of evidence & Challenge - one by challenge one Closure Closure Closure Four Phase Interview

15. Post Interview • Qualitative and quantitative data - perceptions • Cognitive effort • Deceptiveness • Motivation • If/what verbal strategies employed • If/what behavioural strategies employed

16. Results • Terrorists & builders both equally and highly motivated • Cognitive Effort - Builders and terrorists found both the strategic & tactical more demanding than the Early • Terrorists -tactical was the most cognitively demanding

17. Deceptiveness & Truthfulness • Terrorists more deceptive than builders per se • Terrorists more deceptive - early interviews than in the strategic & tactical • Terrorists more deceptive in strategic than the tactical interviews

18. Verbal and Behavioural Strategies Prior to Interview • Of the terrorist (deceptive) participants 87.1% reported having a verbal strategy in contrast Just 56.2% of the builder (truthful) participants • 83.9% terrorists and 55.1% builders reported having a behavioural strategy. • Terrorist participants reported having both a verbal and behavioural strategy more often than builder participants

19. Verbal Strategies

20. Behavioural Strategies

21. Post Interview Veracity Judgments • 160 Interviews • 10 police officers & 10 non police officers (tactical & strategic trained) • Each viewed 30 interviews (10 from each condition: 5 builders/5 terrorists • Veracity judgment

22. Police 66% correct Strategic – 66% Tactical - 76% Early – 55% • Lay person 54% • Strategic – 53% • Tactical - 56% • Early – 52% Terrorist (deceptive)

23. Builders (truth tellers) • Lay people 69 % correct • Strategic 66 % • Tactical 69 % • Early 63 % • Police 68 % correct • Strategic 57 % • Tactical 72 % • Early 56 %

24. Where Are We Now? • Non verbal behaviour e.g. • Illustrators • Hand/finger movements • Self adaptors • Verbal behaviour & verbal content e.g. • Statement evidence (in)consistency • Response latency

25. Questions ?