John Potts Dr. Becky Milne University of Portsmouth A PILOT STUDY INTO THE USE OF ENHANCED COGNITIVE INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE TO DEBRIEF POLICE INFORMANTS & AGENTS

Regulation Of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 Introduced legislation on Conduct and Use of informants. Introduced a chain of command for the protection of police and the informant and defined the following: CHIS.(Covert Human Intelligence Source) Handler. Controller. Authorising Officer.

How is the CHIS currently debriefed? Not seen as a witness. Standard Interview. (Fisher et.al1987) Why not use ECI?

Aims and Objective of the Study. 1. What is the standard interview and how productive is it in the area of informants? 2. Does the ECI get better information compared to a SI in an informant scenario?

Method Interviewees / informants: military students. Event: 4 minute video. Interviewers: experienced informant handlers. Within subject design.

Scoring and Coding Correct Incorrect Confabulation. Person. Action Surroundings Object

Results 1 ECI N =10 SI N = 10 Correct Incorrect8539 Confabulation10047

CorrectIncorrectConfabCorrectIncorrect Confab Person Object Action Surr’in Total Results 2 ECI SI

Conclusions 1 ECI produces more correct information than the SI in: – Persons – Actions – Surroundings

Conclusions 2 ECI > incorrect details in: – Person

Conclusions 3 ECI > Confabulations in: – Person – Actions

John Potts Metropolitan Police, University of Portsmouth Dr. Becky Milne University of Portsmouth