Maximising Opportunities to Detect Verbal Deception: Training Police Officers to Interview Tactically

摘要

The purpose of this research was to investigate the efficacy of a novel informationngathering technique for detecting truthful and deceptive verbal accounts in interviewnsettings. Five police officers were trained to use each of the three interview techniques,nnamely tactical, strategic and early. Post-training, each interviewed 30 mock suspectsn(five truth tellers and five liars in each interview condition) who had taken part in annimmersive interactive computer game, competing as either a terrorist (deceiver) or anbuilder (truth tellers). Post-interview, officers completed a questionnaire designed toncollect veracity judgments, confidence levels and the type of interviewee behaviour thatnhad influenced their veracity decision. Results revealed a significant advantage forndetecting both deceivers and truth tellers using our new tactical procedure (67% and 74%naccuracy, respectively) versus the strategic (54% and 42%) and early (53% and 47%)ninterviews. Additionally, when interviewing tactically, not only were interviewers morenconfident in their judgments but they also reported using verbal behaviour more to informntheir judgments. We introduce the new tactical approach to interviewing and discuss ournfindings, suggesting why tactical interviewing is effective for detecting verbal deception.