Martin Vaughan (University of Portsmouth)
Introduction
In 2001, the Home Office commissioned a national review of interventions that aimed to identify good practice for the management and supervision of investigative interviewing and evaluate the extent to which PEACE interviewing techniques for suspect, witness and victim interviews had been incorporated into workplace practice (Clarke and Milne 2001). The national review made a series of recommendations aimed at improving interviewing and supervision practices.
In July, 2003, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Investigative Interview Strategy (ACPO, 2003) was formally proposed and agreed by the ACPO Cabinet to include all of Clarke and Milne’s (2001) recommendations. This led to the implementation of a National Tiered approach to investigative interviewing training throughout the UK. The approach led to the introduction of a new role, that of a Specialist Interview Manager (IM). In constructing each Tier, Skills for Justice UK assigned National Occupational Standards (NOSs) which would serve as performance indicators enabling closer scrutiny of working practices based on skill factors commensurate to the role and consistent throughout the UK.
The role of the Interview Manager (IM) is to (i) manage, (ii) advise, (iii) co-ordinate and (iv) evaluate investigative interviews for serious, complex or major investigations. The IM role should be conducted by highly skilled and experienced investigators who are likely to hold academic qualifications and share their time between the training environment, oversight responsibilities and working at the front-line on major investigations (Clarke and Milne, 2001). The role is currently described within the UK National Investigative Interviewing Strategy (NIIS) (ACPO, 2009) and identifies that the IM assists a Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) by managing the interview process. The NIIS includes the NOSs required for the role which are produced by Skills for Justice (SFJ) 2008. The NOSs (SFJ,2008) outline that the IM must produce a documented interview strategy which will offer the SIO strategic guidance for the management of witness and suspect interviews and structured advice to the interview team (see also NIIS, ACPO, 2009). To date, no research has examined the quality of such strategies in order to see whether they are actually meeting national standards and are fit for purpose.
Importance of an effective strategy
Interview strategies should always be constructed with an investigative mindset based on the core principles of open mindedness and the ability to be receptive to alternative explanations (Smith and Milne, 2018; CoP, 2023). Knowing the purpose of the interview, outlined in strategies, impacts on questioning and interviewer behaviour, that in turn helps nurture an open-minded, flexible approach that then improves outcomes (Chin, et al., 2022). Investigative interviewers should know the purpose of the interview and the value of the information they obtain as an inflexible approach to the adopted interviewing style limits the effectiveness of the investigation (Stephenson and Moston, 1994). Miscarriages of justice cases have taught us that the alternative is ill-prepared interviews and tunnel vision resulting in unjust outcomes, with a lack of oversight which fails to transfer into improved workplace practices (Poyser, et al, 2018; Rossmo and Pollock, 2019; Bull and Milne, 2022). Thus, when strategies are ill-conceived and implemented with limited understanding a strategy could have a dysfunctional impact on the investigative process (Stelfox, 2008).
The strategy formulation phase requires the IM to coordinate the interview process by producing a series of briefings to key stakeholders engaged in the interviewing process which include: custody management teams, appropriate health care professionals, legal advisers, interpreters and appropriate adults (see Vaughan et al., 2022c). It is critical to have the right interview teams deployed with the IM basing their decision on the skills, experience and suitability of the interviewer matched against the crime typology and suspect characteristics.
Method
In the present study real world interview strategies were evaluated using a bespoke coding system. A purposive sampling method was applied due to the nature of the required sample; involving high stakes investigations with vulnerable suspects and by IMs being deployed.
The sample of police interviews and corresponding IM interview strategies were provided by three police forces (England and Wales, UK) and included 25 with an IM involvement (unit of measurement = one interview regardless of number of interview sessions). Of the 25 that involved an IM, 10 interviews had no corresponding interview strategy as one had not been developed by an IM. This left 15 strategies for analysis. The strategies comprised of 15 incidents including allegations of murder (n = 10), death by dangerous driving (n = 3), and rape (n = 2). Across the 15 interview strategies and associated interviews, there was one female suspect and 14 male suspects; three were identified as juvenile suspects, and 12 as adult suspects. The outlined vulnerabilities were mental health (n = 10), age of the suspect (n = 3), and physical disability (n = 2). All of the interviews were visually recorded.
A bespoke coding system was designed specifically for the research. The 39 coded items aligned to the Skills for Justice, UK (2008) National Occupational Standard CJ301 and were subdivided into four sections; (i) strategic advice, (ii) interview co-ordination, (iii) interview monitoring, and (iv) post-interview. Each of the 39 items were scored using Likert Scales (1 being inadequate, 3 being fit for purpose and 5 being highly skilled). A further ‘not applicable’ category was included when items were not relevant to the assessment (Holman et al., 2004).
Research Findings
The current study found that IMs did not always provide interview strategies. Specifically, of the 25 interviews where an IM was deployed, 10 were missing an interview strategy. The lack of a documented strategy should have been identified by the SIO and rectified prior to the beginning of the interview. This is indicative of earlier research which identified that SIO’s were reported as ‘rarely’ providing feedback on strategy development which would have identified that one had not even been completed (Vaughan et al., 2022a). Strategic management consists of two identifiable elements; (i) formulation, and (ii) application. Logically, application follows formulation where one cannot implement, carry out or ensure completion of something until that something exists (Hrebiniak, 2006). Strategy development is required to ensure investigative interviewing processes are managed effectively (Smith and Milne, 2018).
There are four main sub areas of an interview strategy including a total of thirty-eight sub-elements covering implementation, co-ordinating, monitoring, and evaluation. Across all four areas none of the observed sub-elements of the NOS requirements received a mean score indicative of skilled or highly skilled. During the implementation stage only 30% of the NOS requirements that had been included were rated as fit for purpose with these areas concerning logistic and legal advice.
IMs need to plan and coordinate their strategies based on a sound understanding of the available relevant information including: areas of offence details, suspect medical details, vulnerability and trauma issues, and identifying information to ensure appropriate third-party involvement (e.g., AA, subject matter experts). Research has established that the identification of suspect vulnerability is problematic for police officers (Bath and Dehaghani, 2020). The sheer scale and complexities of suspect vulnerabilities have the potential to overwhelm an interviewer especially with the absence of guidance on how to identify and interview vulnerable suspects (Smith and O’Mahony, 2018). Therefore, when identified, this information should then be shared, to ensure all those engaged in the interview process carry out the requirements of the strategy effectively. This provides a safeguard especially for vulnerable suspects. However, it was identified that there were significant shortcomings observed in the sample strategies. The fact that the IMs strategies were not rated as skilled or highly skilled at co-ordinating the interview process is concerning. IMs strategies displayed inadequately documented areas including definition of tasks, vulnerability assessments, welfare monitoring, briefing of key individuals; including custody staff, legal adviser, medical examiners, appropriate adults and the interview team.
In all aspects of the monitoring process the strategies were rated poorly with a failure to outline key areas of strategy development to safeguard the collection of information provided during the interview. No sub-element within this domain was deemed fit for purpose. Consequently, the strategy lacked a coherent approach to ensure the interview met ethical and legal requirements.
Conclusion
Strategic management development is a very complex and long-term process which requires one to define, conduct and evaluate an applied strategy (Ivančić, 2013). What the current study has shown is that whilst overall the interviewing arena has been awash with research-based improvements, the role of the IM requires further research (Vaughan et al., 2022a, 2022b). This current research has illustrated the frailties of strategies constructed in high stakes crime investigations due to poor, vague or even no strategy design. This could be due to a lack of guidance or a model to support implementation (see Vaughan et al., 2022d).
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Vaughan, M., Milne, R., Cherryman, J., and Dalton, G. (2022a) The Role of the Interview Manager (IM) in UK Policing: Perceptions and Experiences of the IM when Deployed in High Stake Crime Investigations. [Unpublished manuscript] School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Portsmouth.
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Defending Vulnerability 