1. Interview & Interrogations
Developed by: Officer Vivian Lopez, SRO
Ironwood Ridge High School
Oro Valley Police Department

2. Fact:
The majority of cases are solved by obtaining confessions, not with forensic evidence (despite popular belief).

3. Types of Interviews Field Interviews
Consensual
Non-Consensual
Investigative Detentions (reasonable suspicion)
Custodial Interrogations (probable cause)

4. Bad Habits lead to bad interviews
Failure to interview
Authoritarian demeanor/too aggressive
Prejudice
Failure to investigate
Early Handcuffing/unnecessary handcuffing
Failure to control temper
Partial investigations
Failure to build rapport
Failure to properly document

5. Miranda Two Elements need to be present for Miranda to apply:
Custody (not free to leave)
Interrogation
Miranda does not apply to traffic stops or brief field interviews based on reasonable suspicion

6. Does Miranda Apply? Questioning at the police station
Questioning in a police vehicle
Questioning at the crime scene
Questioning at the suspect’s home

7. Interrogation vs. Interview
Interview: basically a conversation (“Tell me what happended. “
Interrogation: inherently involves Persuasion and/or Pressure.

8. Interrogation finds out the why
You really need to know your Criminal Law and the elements of a crime, because some crimes require intent.
Example: Burglary requires felonious intent, and the only way to get this kind of information is through an interrogation.

9. Types of Confessions Verbal Written Tape recorded (digital recorders)
Hard Confession
Soft Confession

10. Interviewer Questions
The interviewer should formulate questions aimed at discovering the following:
Was there premeditation?
Were actions deliberate?
Was there malicious aforethought?

11. Culpable Mental State
the state of mind of an individual while committing a crime; a crime requires a guilty act or omission (the actus reus) be committed with the required degree of guilty mind. Generally, certain acts are crimes only if done with a particular state of mind, and that a certain sort of criminal act is more or less serious depending on the perpetrator's state of mind at the time.

12. If we consider the killing of one person by another person, such conduct may be
1) no crime if done in self-defense,
2) a serious crime if done negligently and 3) the most serious sort of crime if done purposefully (murder).
The term, Culpable Mental State is synonymous with mens rea (guilty mind).

13. Culpable Mental State Criminal Negligence Recklessly Knowingly
Intentionally

14. The Interview Obtain Basic Information Obtain Descriptors Orientation
Narration
Cross-Examination
Resolution

15. Basic Information Full Name Alias/Nicknames/AKA’s Date of birth
Social Security Number
Driver’s License number
Address
Phone number(s) (cell, home, work)
Place of Employment

16. Descriptors Height Weight Eye Color Hair Color/ Bald Race Gender
Mustache/beard/Goat-T

17. Orientation Introduce self Handle administrative issues
Miranda (if necessary)
De-escalate stress, anger
Talk about neutral topics to assess subject
Explain interview process (“I need your side of the story”)

18. Narration Begin dealing with the substance of the case
Ask open- ended questions
Why are you here?
What happened?
Tell me about?
What happened next?

19. Cross-examination Direct Questions Yes/No questions (last resort)
Positive confrontation
Theme building
Supported confession
Questions that gain clarification
Paraphrase what they have told you

20. Resolution Wrap-up issues Explain next step of investigation
Thank the subject for speaking to you
Return to neutral topics
Arrest or Arrange for future contact

21. Tips Control Temper Be subjective (be human) Build Rapport
Be soft, minimize wrong doings
Gain trust
Be confident
Be convincing
Give examples/Tell parables
Don’t be intimidated

22. More on culpable mental state

23. Last but not least Documentation- Concise and well written reports.
If its not in a report, it didn’t happen.