Who are you? - interviewing techniques

Developing interview techniques is the next stage of offender profiling, this is where forensic psychologists use the developed profile to highlight weaknesses that may encourage the offender to talk or confess. This technique is also used to put the offender on edge or to make them nervous so that they become flustered and cannot keep their lies straight. The trick to conducting any kind of interview is establishing a rapport with the individual being interviewed. This is because if an individual neither likes nor trusts you they are extremely unlikely to take you into their confidence, which defeats the purpose of any kind of interview as the aim is to gather information. But, it is not always clear if the individual that is being interviewed is a witness, a suspect, a co-offender or simply an innocent bystander. So, it is therefore the task of the interviewer to decipher the verbal and nonverbal responses and make the connections and decide what role the interviewee will play in the investigation. The best known interview technique to use to catch out a liar or someone who is editing the information they are providing, is to present the interviewee with a series of accusatory behaviour increasing questions, because often when an individual is lying they display an increased amount of tension and anxiety which an interviewer can pick up on for example they may beging fidgeting or sit on their hands and hit their leg against the table.
However, it is very important for the interviewer to remain impartial throughout they should not display emotions such as anger, shock, disgust or disbelief. This is because it would hinder them in their job as their aim is to get to the truth, and if the interviewer was to show their true feelings most likely of disgust this would put the suspect on the defensive so they would not tell the interviewer anything. The truth could be gained through sympathising with the suspect so that they believe that their state of mind is understood by the interviewer. If the rapport with the suspect is strong enough they may begin to believe that the interviewer would have acted in the same way and that they are not alone in their anti social behaviour

I'll stand by you - Counselling the police

Many people take for granted how stressful police work truly is, when in fact it is one of the only professions where an individual is continuously exposed to violence, murder, accidents and terrible personal injury and risk. No matter how healthy an individual truly is both mentally and physically they cannot withstand long term exposure to violence and traumatic personal incidents without some kind of blow back the stress alone can do considerable damage. But, there is the problem of the administration that only tends to get involved in reducing stress when an incident has occurred rather than getting involved before hand to help prevent incidents such as officer suicide.

Dealing with incidents before they have a chance to occur is not that difficult administrators can begin by offering extra training to help officer cope with post-traumatic stress when it occurs. It is also very important that police officers understand that counselling can be very beneficial, or even sharing their feelings with their peers so they can understand that they are not alone in their feelings and that other officers experience them to. Officers also need to learn to refrain from making judgemental comments towards an individual that has suffered a traumatic event. However, this is only a temporary fix for the damage that has been done departments also need to set up a long term form of support this doesn't have to be expensive the problem could be solved by using peer support groups, as the officers are all going through the same things.

Officers need to know they have the support of their administrators as they may already feel unappreciated by the general public. It has been found that seventy percent officers who are involved in a shooting leave their department after five years. This would not happen if the correct counselling was available to them, it only damages the department as they are losing valuable man power as well as losing out financially since they have paid to train the officer. Officers should not be made to feel like they have to deal with the stress alone they should know they have the firm support of their administrators, their peers and their families.