PI's: Preparing to Confront a Suspect

When working on a criminal case, or an individual suspected of violating company policy you need to prepare in advance for conducting an interview, or follow-up interview, and identify a strategy to confront the suspect with their actions. Following are a few suggestions in preparing to confront a suspect. 

Preparing in advance can help you during the interview or interrogation process.

• Start by gathering the facts that point to your suspect. Have them in the order they happen. Sometimes creating a timeline with notes as to what evidence supports each fact is great place to start. This will allow you to focus your interview/interrogation to gain additional insights into each fact. 
• Learn about the suspect. Talk with the client to gain additional information about their habits, possible personal issues they may be facing, and ask if there have been any noted changes in their behavior since the incident before you meet with the suspect. 
• Identify any legal requirements, or policy requirements that may include notifications you must give to the suspect at the beginning of your interview/interrogation. These may include policy notifications, depending on the client, that require them to cooperate with an administrative investigation. 
• Develop your question list in the order you want to begin. Starting slowly with open-ended questions, then working up to more specific questions is one technique that works for most situations. For example; "Tell me about what you did yesterday from about 9:00 am to 11:00 am?" Then getting more specific, "At 9:15 am you said you were in Jane's office. Why did you go in her office while she was gone?", "What were you carrying when you left her office?" 

Starting the interview/interrogation: 

• For safety you should have a second investigator with you in the event the suspect becomes violent. Also, having a second investigator will allow one to focus on questioning, monitoring body language while the second investigator focuses on taking notes. 
• Continuing with safety, arrange the meeting location so you have a direct route to the exit. 
• Always start by developing rapport, even if you have interviewed the suspect before. Your goal is to get them comfortable at in talking to you. This increases the chance that they will open up to you as the questioning progresses. Starting off in an aggressive manner often results in resistance from the suspect. One investigator shared with us, "I get more confessions with sugar than I do with salt." 
• When appropriate, be empathetic with the suspect during questioning. Being empathetic furthers their their trust in you and they may be more likely to open up about the incident. If you are aware of personal issues, such as financial problems, drug use, etc, you may want to emphasize with them during the interview with verbal "clues". "We know you are facing some financial issues. Facing financial issues is stressful, makes me feel trapped." (Notice the change the use of "me" in the second sentence)
• TIP: One private investigator uses a technique he calls, "mental braking". After the interview has progressed for awhile he will intentionally sit back in a relaxed manner, and ask the suspect, "What are you thinking right now?", to slow the interview -- "slowly apply the brakes". Depending on the suspect's response, the investigator will ask further questions. For example; if the suspect says, "I'm thinking that you suspect me." The investigator says he always responds with, "Why is that? What makes you think that?"

During the interview/interrogation: 

• Address contradictions in the suspect's statements.
• Practice active listening. Use your body language to let them know you are listening. One technique is to mirror their body posture. If they are leaning back then do the same. 
• Be alert to their body language. Hands touching their face repeatedly, breaking eye contact, etc. These signs can help guide you on your questioning in changing from a casual approach to a more pointed approach. 

Closing the interview/interrogation: 

• Some experienced investigators, when concluding the interview with or without a confession, will ask the suspect to write a statement about the incident, even if they have already written one. One investigator shared, that in her experience, the suspect that was involved often will refuse to write a statement, but cautions that this is not a sign of guilt in all cases. It often allows her to continue the interview with more discussion. 
• Near the end of the interview/interrogation, if the suspect has not confessed, you can decide if you will confront them with some or all of the evidence you have. Being empathetic, if the suspect has been generally cooperative, may help solicit a confession. "Unfortunately, I don't believe you. I have witnesses, and video evidence that shows you at the scene when the incident occurred. I can understand that you are under a lot of stress right now with everything that is going on in your life. Stress clouds my thinking. It would help me if you could explain how that happened if you weren't the one?" 

These are just a few ideas, or tips. How you implement them will depend on your specific case, the evidence you have, reactions of your suspect, and your personal preference in conducting interviews or interrogations. 

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