Our Training Programs

2-Day Interview & Interrogation Techniques Course

 

Advanced, Rapport-Based Strategies for Obtaining Truthful and Reliable Information

 

Course Overview:

 

The GDT Strategies 2-Day Interview & Interrogation Techniques Course is an intensive training program designed to equip law enforcement professionals with advanced, rapport-based techniques for conducting effective interviews and interrogations.  

 

This course provides investigators with a variety of strategies and skills to obtain the truth from the most difficult, resistant suspects, while maintaining the highest ethical and legal standards.  This training adds emphasis on best practices for narcotics and violent crime investigations. 

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Course instruction includes live demonstration of interview and interrogation techniques followed by short practical exercises interspersed throughout the course.  Participants will leave with hands-on, practical techniques they can immediately begin to use in the field. These proven methods will lead to better communication skills and to increased evidence collection, arrests and successful prosecutions.  

 

"Whether you are new to law enforcement or a seasoned investigator,

this is a course you won’t want to miss!"  

 

Who Should Attend:

 

This course is open to all law enforcement professionals, including patrol officers, detectives, federal agents, parole and probation officers, military investigators, prosecutors and members of the intelligence community.  Law enforcement supervisors are also encouraged to attend. 

 

Course Topics:

 

Interrogation Legal Considerations

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• Miranda considerations and best practices for obtaining a valid waiver

• How to develop an initial admission of guilt into a legally acceptable, comprehensive confession

• Legal and ethical parameters surrounding the use of trickery and deceit

 

Room Setting and Preparation

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• Developing a strategy and preparing for an interview or interrogation

• Adverse impact of interview room distractions

• Ideal interview and interrogation environment and room set-up

• Use of interpreters

• Electronic recordings

 

Interpretation of Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior

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• Understanding verbal and nonverbal behavior

• Guidelines for effectively evaluating behavior

• Different types of deception

• Truth formula

• How the interviewer’s behavior, the environment and the subject’s past experiences can impact the accurate interpretation of behavior

 

Basic Interview Method - This is a rapport-based, non-accusatory technique used for interviewing victims, witnesses and suspects.

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• How to effectively develop rapport with a subject

• Active listening skills

• Different types of interview questions, including open-ended, closed-ended, clarification, behavior provoking and bait questions

 

Two Separate Interrogation Strategies

 

GDT Strategies provides two separate and distinctly different techniques for conducting an interrogation – the Direct Accusation and the Non-Confrontational interrogation methods.  With these different techniques in hand, an investigator can use the most effective method based on the suspect’s background and the nature of the crime.  

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• Direct Accusation Interrogation Method - This multi-step, rapport-based interrogation technique begins with a direct accusation of the suspect’s involvement in the crime.  The technique then transitions into theme development to reduce the guilty suspect’s resistance, allowing the suspect to tell the truth while saving face and protecting their ego. 

 

• Non-Confrontational Interrogation Method - This highly effective method is a softer, more conversational approach to the interrogation, resulting in fewer suspect denials and objections and thereby eliminates conflict between the suspect and interrogator. 

 

Handling Difficult Questions

 

Guilty suspects often attempt to put an investigator in a defensive position and take control of the interrogation.  Participants will learn strategies for how to respond when a suspect raises difficult questions or attempts to get the upper hand during the interrogation.  

 

Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE Technique)  

 

Participants will learn how the timing, sequence and manner in which evidence is introduced to a suspect can influence the outcome of an interrogation. 

 

Preventing False Confessions  

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• Adverse impacts of false confessions

• Recognizing potential risk factors that contribute to false confessions

• How to prevent false confessions

• Maintaining an ethical approach while seeking truthful information

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For a printable, more detailed course description and instructor bio, click on the PDF file below:

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