working on their car's engine, you might offer up a story about a car repair that vexed you in order to illuminate a common experience. It has nothing to do with the details you will be questioning the subject about shortly, but it goes far to build trust and foster open communication. It is also a time for you to show empathy, an important trait to display to interview subjects [16].
Your body language also influences the subject's willingness to open up to you. Some subjects will not immediately respond to your efforts to build rapport and you will need to continue to make intentional efforts to connect throughout the interview. Adopt a casual posture, with hands and arms relaxed and visible. Indicate that you are listening by showing interest, making eye contact, nodding, and so forth. Mirroring is a behavioral technique in which the interviewer subtly copies a subject's mannerisms and tone, as a way of building trust and showing understanding. This is especially helpful when supporting a positive interaction. In situations where a subject becomes angry or volatile, you can often subdue them simply by adopting a demeanor that is the opposite of theirs. If they begin to yell, you might lower your voice and slow your speech in response, which will then encourage the subject to mirror you [17].
Time invested in learning and practicing rapport‐building strategies is worthwhile. As you learn new techniques, practice them in casual settings with friends and family, and gauge their responses as a way of knowing what to expect in the field.
5.5 Ask Clear and Direct Open‐Ended Questions
After you have reviewed all materials available and determined the goals of the interview and the information you are seeking to gain from the subject, you may prepare your questions. When possible, questions should follow the timeline of the case, though in some cases questions may address details that happened even before the timeline of events relevant to the crime. For example, you might begin by asking about how a witness first met the suspect and the nature of their relationship prior to any of the events you are investigating. You want your subject to feel as comfortable speaking with you as possible by the time your most important questions are posed to them. Facilitate this by allowing the subject to give you some background in their own words and without interruption.
Interview questions should be open‐ended. Open‐ended questions are ones that cannot be answered with “yes” or “no.” They require an answer, as well as an explanation, and will supply you with important details to consider in your investigation. Open‐ended questions draw out information. They also do not feed information to the subject by telling them in advance the information you are seeking.
Consider the following examples of an interview following a report of a man kicking a dog:
Example A
Interviewer:
“Did you witness the suspect in an angry and intoxicated state yelling at and abusing the dog in the parking lot?”
Witness:
“Yes.”
Interviewer:
“Did you see the suspect kick the dog in the parking lot last Wednesday?”
Subject:
“No.”
Example B
Interviewer:
“What happened in the parking lot between the suspect and the dog last Wednesday?”
Witness:
“I was leaving my shift at the bank, and I saw a man and a woman across the parking lot. The woman was crying, and the man was grabbing at her little brown dog's leash. The man fell down twice and was unsteady on his feet, but he managed to get the dog away from her, falling to the ground a third time in the process. The man was yelling at the dog. The woman was crying. She got into a black car and got on her cell phone.”
Interviewer:
“What happened next?”
Witness:
“The man stood up and picked up the dog by the leash. It was hanging a couple of feet off the ground and making an awful sound. He tried to kick it but missed and then he slammed the dog down against the pavement at least three times. The dog got away from the man and kind of crawled back to the woman in the car and she picked it up and drove away.”
Example B began with open‐ended questions and led to the witness supplying the investigator with some valuable details they can follow up on:
While the man attempted to kick the dog, he failed in this and actually committed other cruel acts toward the dog (hanging, slamming).
Who was the woman with the dog?
Who did she call on her cell phone?
Because the witness disclosed that they work at a bank, the investigator can follow up with the business to review security footage of the parking lot on the date and time of the incident.
It is important to note that this witness is not going to know why the suspect was harming the dog, so it is not necessary for them to speculate on this. The value of this witness is their detailed account of what happened and not why. The statement above should serve as a foundation for the interviewer to pose additional, more detailed questions about the length and type of leash the witness saw, any particular words they could hear the suspect yell, and who else might have been present in the parking lot or seen this incident through the bank window.
You should not expect that any one interview will provide all the information you need to finalize an investigation. On the contrary, the most valuable interviews provide information that guides you to more sources of information and additional witnesses. In the case above, knowing the witness worked at a bank that most likely collects round‐the‐clock surveillance video footage pointed the investigator to a recorded account of the incident for analysis.
5.6 Suspect Interviews
The importance of setting the subject at ease, establishing rapport, and building trust is no less important when the subject is the investigation's suspect than when they are a witness. While the ultimate goal of the suspect interview might be to obtain a confession, this should not be the driving motivation when structuring the interview. There may also be times when an investigator is faced with interviewing a suspect in a case in which it is seemingly obvious, due to the other evidence at hand, that the individual most certainly committed the crime, but this decision may only be made by the courts and the duty of the investigator to interview the suspect with integrity and impartiality remains unchanged.
After you have introduced yourself, established rapport, informed the suspect of their rights, and explained why they are being interviewed and what to expect, it is time to allow the suspect to provide you with their account of the incident at question. Begin by posing an invitation to tell their story and allow them time to collect their thoughts. Try not to interrupt or ask clarifying questions during the suspect's narrative, allow them to pause to gather their thoughts as needed, and resist the urge to fill their silence with questions. As the suspect offers you their story, you will most likely identify pieces you will want to examine more closely. Once the suspect has said their piece with minimal interruptions, it is time for you to pose clarifying questions, introduce evidence or elements of the investigation that the suspect may have left out of their account, and address any blatant misinformation. Even when digging deeper and posing questions that may cause discomfort for the suspect, remember to ask questions in an open‐ended way and treat the suspect with respect. Your job is to probe and challenge the suspect's account, as needed, while striving for accuracy and truthfulness.
In cases with multiple suspects, interview each suspect separately, if possible, and clarify any “we” statements made during the interview. It is important to document each suspect's individual culpability for the violation you are investigating. Ask direct questions about their participation in the incident or role in the care of the animal.