Your Investigative Interview

The investigative interview is an essential element of the investigation process. It is the opportunity to capture the accounts of the individuals involved in any issue or concern under investigation.

The Sage Dictionary of Policing describes an investigative interview as “…an interview conducted to elicit evidence or information from a person (i.e., witness, victim, complainant or suspect) during the process of an investigation (Wakefield & Flemming). The College of Policing describes the aims of an investigative interview as a process to “obtain accurate and reliable accounts” (COP, 2013).

Fundamentally, an investigative interview is an opportunity or occasion to obtain relevant, reliable and accurate information from individuals within the parameters of an investigation. These words, opportunity and occasion, are utilised here, as not all interviews will be pre-planned. The investigative interview can be a moment in time when you can obtain some information relevant to the investigation, this is why it is imperative that anyone who works in an environment where disclosures of wrongdoing can be provided that there is a basic understanding of the investigative interview.

In basic terms, an interview is the process whereby an individual or team of individuals ask questions of another party to establish some facts or to reach an objective. It is unfeasible to list every opportunity where and when interviews are conducted however, they occur in almost every organisational setting for a variety of reasons.

If you work for a charity protecting women fleeing domestic violence, you will ask questions regarding their safety.

If you are dealing with workplace sexual harassment, then you will be asking some questions of what happened, where and when and how they feel about it.

If you are coaching children’s tennis and one child discloses, they are frightened to go home that night, you should be asking the child why.

These are just a few examples of pre-planned investigative interviews and those unplanned opportunities to ask some relevant questions.

In most cases the investigative interview will be pre-planned and detailed enough to glue all the elements together within the investigation.

The Objective.

Any investigative interview should have an objective. This is the goal; what it is you need to obtain from the interview. The objective reflects your rationale - rationalising why you are carrying out the interview.

Take the above example of dealing with women fleeing domestic violence. The main objective of the interview should be the gathering of enough information to ensure the future safety of the victim. Your questions should include all the necessary probing to ensure the victim’s safety. Without an objective, what would be the purpose of the interview and how could it be rationalised? 

In the third example where a child discloses to a tennis coach that they are frightened to go home – the objective of the short tentative interview is to understand why the child is frightened to go home. This justifies and rationalises the coaches next actions i.e., refer this straight to children’s services or the police, or lower-level actions as the disclosure may not amount to referral onto external agencies.

In any given circumstance – there must be an objective for your investigative interview, and this should be part of your planning and preparation. Your planning notes should include:

What you already know and what else you need to know.

What you already know will provide the scaffolding for your objective.

Timing of the Investigative Interview.

The timing of your interview goes hand and hand with your objective and can alter throughout the investigation depending on the issue that was raised. For instance, if the victim makes a direct complaint to you about the conduct of another individual, then the victim’s interview should take place as soon as possible.  

You should plan and prepare your investigative interview with a clear objective and obtain this as quickly as possible. Any information obtained in this interview should then be corroborated and clarified. If the information obtained highlights possible witnesses, then they should also be interviewed with clear objectives.

“Accurate and reliable accounts ensure that the investigation can be taken further by opening up other lines of enquiry and acting as a basis for questioning others” (COP, 2013).

Not until you have all the information required from victims and witnesses, in addition to other investigative lines of enquiry being completed, should you interview the subject of concern. You will be able to set a clear objective during this investigative interview due to other investigation work you have carried out.

Sometimes, management structures and line managers may place pressure on an investigator to carry out the investigative interview quickly and early in the investigation.

This should be resisted.

How can one fully resolve a concern if all of the necessary information has not been gleaned. Furthermore, it is right and fair for the subject of concern to have an opportunity to answer questions regarding all of the known information so a fair resolution can be obtained.

“Condemnation before investigation, is the highest form of ignorance” – Albert Einstein.

Conclusion

An investigative interview is the process of asking someone questions to obtain an accurate and reliable account so the account can be scrutinised and tested.

Always set an objective in your planning and preparation stage of your investigative interview.

Time your interviews with your objectives in mind and resist to the pressure of interviewing too early.

The investigative interview is not a stand-alone element within the investigative process, it is embedded and crucial to the investigation and establishing resolution. Often it is the only way evidence can be obtained that can be used at the point of concluding the case. No investigation plan without the investigative interview.