The Reid Technique
The Reid technique relies upon three factors in getting a suspect to confess to a crime, as follows (Mince-Didier, 2020):
• Isolation: This involves making the suspect feel alone.
• Maximization: This involves the interrogator stating that the suspect is guilty, presenting a theory of how the crime happened, and ignoring any claims of innocence.
• Minimization: This involves the interrogator softening the questioning, expressing an understanding of why the crime was committed, and urging the suspect to confess (maybe even to a lesser charge). This is also where the suspect is usually told that without a confession, he or she may remain in custody without a chance of returning home.
Planning and Preparation for an Interview
When you are preparing to interview a suspect, you will need to prepare the following (FYI.org.nz, n.d.)
• Objectives
• Important topics to the investigation
• Suspect profile: Identity factors
• Suspect profile: Current state
• Legal requirements
• Interview structure
• Practical arrangements
• Safety considerations
Objectives
• Examine all of the available evidence (e.g., witness statements, scene examination, exhibits, and other supporting documents).
• Take relevant extracts from witness statements or reports to assist in your written plan.
• Set the objectives for the interview (including covering identified important topics, such as obtaining an account for the suspect's movements between 9:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. last night or obtaining the suspect's account for the blood found on his or her clothes).
• For complex cases that involve multiple witnesses and events, you should prepare a time line to assist with the interview planning.
(FYI.org.nz, n.d.)
Important Topics to the Investigation
• Identify possible offences committed.
• Consider probable defenses, and decide how to cover these during the interview.
• Understand the strength of the evidence, and consider how to introduce any physical evidence and statements or descriptions from witnesses.
• Know the established facts and areas that need to be explored.
• Know the geographical area of the offence. Physically examining the scene provides an advantage.
• Establish possible challenges, and determine how and when you will introduce them. Decide what allegations to outline to the suspect if he or she invokes his or her right to silence.
(FYI.org.nz, n.d.)
Suspect Profile: Identity Factors
• Age and maturity
• Race, culture, religion
• Gender and sexuality (if relevant)
• Any physical, intellectual, psychological, or psychiatric impairment
• Any welfare issues that may arise or any special needs (e.g., is an interpreter required?)
• Suspect's relationship to the victim and domestic circumstances
• Current or previous contact with public services (e.g., previous contact with police or health professionals)
• Employment and routines
(FYI.org.nz, n.d.)
Suspect Profile: Current State
Speak to other officers who have had contact with the suspect that day, and consider the following (FYI.org.nz, n.d.):
• The suspect's emotional state (e.g., trauma, distress, shock, depression)
• Physical state (e.g., injuries, intoxication, tiredness)
• Authority to search the person or property for potential evidence and if or when a search should be conducted
Legal Requirements
Consider the legal options and requirements. If there is enough evidence to charge a suspect, you must advise the suspect of his or her rights. In addition, if you are questioning someone in custody, he or she must be advised of his or her rights.
(FYI.org.nz, n.d.)
Interview Structure
• Decide what interview model to use. This will usually be the conversation management model.
• Work out the interview's parameters, and produce a written plan to use during the interview as a guide to your structure.
• Consider your opening question and the topics that are important to the investigation, including possible offences, evidence, and probable defenses.
• Consider what exhibits to produce as well as how and when to produce them.
• Establish possible challenges, and decide how and when to introduce them.
• Decide what evidence you will seek the suspect's explanation for if he or she invoked his or her right to silence.
(FYI.org.nz, n.d.)
Practical Arrangements
• Decide whether the suspect requires special consideration (e.g., youths and those vulnerable for other reasons).
• Decide who should be present during the interview.
• Decide where and when the interview should take place (e.g., is the suspect in prison?).
• Decide the interview's pace, likely duration, and need for breaks.
• Examine the interview room, and arrange seating (usually in the ten-to-two position).
• Check your equipment. Make sure that the microphone is positioned directly between you and the suspect. Have communication aids ready, including a pen and paper for drawing sketch plans.
• Prepare exhibits.
• Decide whether you want the interview monitored, and make arrangements accordingly.
• Consider what is likely to happen after the interview (e.g., arrest, medical examination, photographs, fingerprints, DNA specimen requests, or the suspect being returned home).
(FYI.org.nz, n.d.)
Safety Considerations
The suspects being interviewed may pose a danger to your safety and that of others in the station as well as to the security of police property and information. Ensure the following (FYI.org.nz, n.d.):
• A designated and secure interview room is used wherever available.
• A second officer is present or nearby to ensure that you can control the suspect.
• The suspect is not left unattended and is accompanied to the toilet but allowed to use the facilities in private.
• Visitors, including legal advisers, are not left unattended while on police premises, other than when in private consultation with their client. Take special care when recording videos of interviews to ensure that the suspect is not left unattended near recording equipment.
Note that the more restrictive the security surrounding a suspect while on police premises is, the more likely that a court will hold that the person was in custody and therefore should have been read his or her caution or rights (FYI.org.nz, n.d.).