by MAC-3
To ensure a clear understanding of their obligations and to protect the welfare of the public, I propose that law enforcement professionals agree to abide by the following principles of practice:
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To refuse to conduct an inquiry when there is reason to believe that it is intended to circumvent or defy the law.
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To never knowingly submit or permit subordinates to submit a misleading or false report.
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The Art of Investigative Interviewing
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To never solicit or accept fees, gratuities, or gifts that are provided to falsify or influence an inquiry.
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To respect the rights and dignity of all people.
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To avoid any demeanor, pose, duress, artifice, or device that would tend to induce a false information during an inquiry.
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To refuse to release to any unauthorized person information obtained during an inquiry.
These principles of practice establish minimal guidelines for the performance of professional activities. Conduct and practices that are not specifically stated herein but are detrimental to or discrediting to the law enforcement profession or its members should not be condoned.
CANONS OF ETHICS OF THE CALIFORNIA
PEACE OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION
In its nine canons, the code of ethics of the California Peace Officers’ Association enumerates the standards of professional conduct expected of its members in their relationship with the public, the criminal justice system, and the profession.
The Canons of Ethics
1. Peace Officers shall uphold the Constitution of the United States, the State Constitution and all laws enacted or established pursuant to legally constituted authority.
2. Peace Officers shall be aware of and shall use proper and ethical procedures in discharging their official duties and responsibilities.
3. Peace Officers shall regard the discharge of their duties as a public trust and shall recognize their responsibilities to the people whom they are sworn to protect and serve.
Ethical Standards and Practices 11
4. Peace Officers will so conduct their public and private life that they exemplify the high standards of integrity, trust, and morality demanded of a member of the peace officer profession.
5. Peace Officers shall recognize that our society holds the freedom of the individual as a paramount precept, which shall not be infringed upon without just, legal, and necessary cause.
6. Peace Officers shall assist in maintaining the integrity and competence of the peace officer profession.
7. Peace Officers shall cooperate with other officials and organizations that are using legal and ethical means to achieve the goals and objectives of the peace officer profession.
8. Peace Officers shall not compromise their integrity, nor that of their agency or profession, by accepting, giving or soliciting any gratuity.
9. Peace Officers shall observe the confidentiality of information available to them through any source, as it relates to the peace officer profession.
ETHICAL AND UNETHICAL INTERVIEWING
Throughout recorded history, one of the great problems we have faced has been the development of a system by which truth may be made known. Solutions to this problem have ranged from such extremes as the torture chambers of the middle ages to the unhesitating acceptance of the word of a gentleman in the eighteenth century. Neither extreme meets the requirements of today. We respect human dignity too much to permit physical and psychological abuse of an individual in the search for truth.
Yet we recognize that our enemies will lie without hesitation, even under oath, if this will further their aims. The truth can be
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The Art of Investigative Interviewing
determined only after the evidence has been collected and analyzed. The public should not be misled into thinking that this is an automatic process. Investigative interviewers should use only the best means available on behalf of society to collect and preserve evidence.
The tactics suggested in this book to encourage the cooperation of interviewees are ethical, as defined in this chapter. This book is partly intended to counteract the often illegal coercive tactics of the past and to promote perceptive interviewing. I consider the following behaviors to be unethical:
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Using interrogation tactics instead of interviewing tactics.
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Treating each interviewee as though culpable, with little or no regard for the destructive public relations and psychological damage inflicted upon interviewees who are blameless.
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Making threats.
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Making illegal promises.
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Using coercion.
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Using duress.
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Using force or the threat of force.
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Employing ruthless methods.
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Falsely imprisoning the interviewee.
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Not respecting the interviewee.
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Not maintaining the interviewee’s dignity.
These and similar tactics have been used in the past in interviews with victims and witnesses as well as suspects. It is time for change. It is time that those involved in investigative interviewing be specifically taught what is ethical and what is unethical, beyond what is legal and what is illegal.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Is there any advantage in having aggressive instincts?
Explain.
Ethical Standards and Practices 13
2. How do we learn our personal values?
3. Why must we take responsibility for our acts?
4. What is the Golden Rule, and how does it apply to ethics?
5. Do you agree that values define who you are? Explain.
6. What is the only thing that can ever be judged ethical or unethical?
7. What do most organizational codes of ethics demand?
8. Why is it important to have a written code of conduct?
9. What is the hidden language of ethics, and how can it support an organization’s ethics goals?
10. What are the characteristics of a profession?
11. What is the principal objective of ethical law enforcement professionals?
12. Why must law enforcement professionals safeguard their personal integrity? How can this be done?
13. List three ethical guidelines that might appear in a code of ethics.
14. Which of the principles of practice do you consider to be the most important? Why?
15. List three interviewing tactics that you believe to be unethical, and explain why.
2
Human Needs and
Deception in the
Interview
By comprehending human needs, the investigator may anticipate the basic motivation of the culpable individual who is trying to rationalize and save face through deceptive tactics.
HUMAN NEEDS
Consider the human needs of interview participants! The effective interviewer sets the stage for eliciting accurate information by knowing, accepting, and attempting to satisfy the emotional needs that motivate all human activity.
Universal Human Needs
Underneath differences of culture, people everywhere are the same. “Humans are all equipped with the same emotional reper-toire, the same basic needs, the same basic defenses” (Bennis et al.
1973, p. 93). Interview participants, like everyone else, are taught to 15
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The Art of Investigative Interviewing
be perceptive and considerate; to express themselves through their self-esteem; to have pride, honor, and dignity; to use tact; and to exhibit a certain amount of poise. In addition, they are motivated by the same basic needs as everyone else. Although we are all endowed with the same basic qualities and needs, it is how we develop thos
e qualities and satisfy those needs that makes us unique.
I believe that crimes are committed to satisfy three basic interpersonal needs. In one form or another, these three needs often lie at the core of the criminal personality (Bennis et al. 1973, pp. 16, 48, 61).
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Control: The need for security. We all share a driving need to control and dominate our environment ( Productivity and the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy 1975).
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Belonging: The feeling of inclusion and affiliation. This need encompasses the desire for recognition and social approval, fair treatment and a chance for advancement, prestige, and a sense of accomplishment.
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Intimacy: The need for love, affection, understanding, and approval; the desire for meaningful relationships with others. We all want to feel that other people accept our weaknesses and recognize our strengths.
Most people maintain the illusion of being independent, reasonable, and clear-thinking; they do not want to appear foolish (Berg and Bass 1961, p. 247). Their temperamental disposition is subtle and imperceptible, even unconscious. There is only a thin line between what they are and what they want (Bennis et al.
1973, p. 12). Interviewees who have been victimized may feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, and distressful. They don’t want to admit that they have lost control in any way or that they were taken advantage of (Bennis et al. 1973, p. 195).
Self-Image and Esteem
It has been said that our greatest fear is not of dying, but of feeling unfit to live. The self is a composite of what we think, feel, believe,
Human Needs and Deception in the Interview 17
want, and worry about. From these subjective components we construct a self-image, and we think of ourselves as unique.
Interviewees, like everyone else, treasure their sense of self. They will protect and enhance their self-image in any way they can.
Self-esteem, which is closely tied to self-image, is worth to the self; it encompasses the need for achievement, mastery, dignity, independence, and freedom. Maintaining self-esteem, or “saving face,” is a central need of interview participants. Interviewees will act defensively to avoid being humiliated in front of others (Bennis et al. 1973, p. 298). Proper interview planning prevents interviewees from being made to look foolish in front of friends or associates.
Negotiate with interviewees so that the interview process will not cause them too much emotional “pain” (Nierenberg 1968, p. 9).
When interviewees feel that they will not totally lose face by cooperating, the interview will be a much more bearable event.
Esteem, on the other hand, consists of worth in the eyes of others—colleagues, peers, subordinates, and superiors. It is tied not only to the position one occupies, but more particularly to the personal qualities of contribution, expertise, and warmth. Esteem from others includes the desire for attention, recognition, prestige, and power. Esteem is gained from others by showing that you know what you are doing, are using technical and practical applications of knowledge, and care what happens to other people (Bowers 1976).
Like you, interviewees don’t want to feel rejected and excluded (Kahn and Cannell 1957). They don’t want to be thought ignorant, uninformed, or indecisive. It is only when they feel accepted by others that interviewees tend to comply (Woody and Woody 1972, p. 140). Interviewees may be reluctant to change their story to be more truthful for fear of looking bad.
Hence, always give them the opportunity to provide a fresh, more accurate story. They need support to modify or elaborate on facts they have presented. My experience indicates that once having made a general conclusion, a witness is not likely to report individual facts inconsistent with that conclusion.
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The Art of Investigative Interviewing
Satisfaction of Needs
“It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly.”
—Anatole France
Humans function mostly on feelings and not logic. Human behavior may at first appear haphazard because it is made up of habits, instincts, intelligence, and learning; these elements over-lap and are not clear-cut (Nierenberg 1968, p. 35). The fundamentals of human personality are needs, emotions, thinking, and the ability to relate thoughts and feelings. Our actions are a result and composite of all of these elements.
But most of all, it is the satisfaction of essential and predictable needs that motivates every type of human behavior.
Individuals try to satisfy their needs by maintaining physical comfort, avoiding the unsafe, attempting to gain understanding, detesting anonymity, desiring to be free from boredom, fearing the unknown, and hating disorder. Underlying every interview action is a desire to satisfy basic human needs (Nirenberg 1963, p. 22). Because social needs are comparatively unsatisfied, they have become a primary motivator for behavior. Interviewees des-perately seek approval and reassurance that they are in control and are worthy. Participants who feel threatened, inferior, or ridiculous will try to increase feelings of security, acceptance, and self-regard. Many human needs can be fulfilled through conversation. Everyone experiences feelings of inferiority from time to time. You may succeed in gaining the cooperation of interviewees if you nourish them with feelings of security, friendship, and dignity and encourage them as they strive to satisfy their needs.
As we strive, directly or indirectly, to satisfy our needs, we have urges to behave in ways that will help or hinder our striving. The psychiatrist William C. Menninger states, “The problem is one of achieving a balance between what we want and what we get. We all want things, but the more adult among us learn to master our frustrations and to recognize that we cannot have what we want when we want it. To be truly adult and efficient
Human Needs and Deception in the Interview 19
persons, we have to learn to find satisfaction in daily life” (1953, p. 26). Complications may develop as we seek to satisfy our needs. Either we modify our behavior to overcome the obstacles that are blocking the satisfaction of our needs, or we become frustrated at our failures. Frustration may provoke the emotional reactions of aggression, regression, and fixation as well as assorted defense mechanisms.
Refusal to Cooperate
Wherever we go, we believe we have the right not to be touched, the right not to be dragged into conversation with a stranger, and the right to privacy. The assumption of these universal rights influences how interviewees expect to be treated in an investigation (Davis 1975, p. 180). Interviewees frequently comment,
“I don’t want to get involved.” Although this statement might reflect a desire to protect themselves, occasionally it also means that they want to protect another person. Revealing someone else’s self is almost as difficult as revealing your own.
The effort to gain the interviewee’s cooperation can sometimes be frustrating. Interviewees might refuse to become involved in an investigation because they fear callous or indifferent treatment from legal authorities, fear of reprisal from the guilty party or others, inconvenience and financial loss, and confusion over legal proceedings. To some interviewees, court appearances entail an unnecessary burden on their time and energy.
Fear of Self-Disclosure
You get to know other people intimately when they reveal to you their innermost thoughts, feelings, and desires (Bennis et al. 1973, p. 541). However, people are reluctant to share their inner self with strangers and will do what they can to avoid self-disclosure in an interview (Bennis et al. 1973, p. 542). People regard their assumptions and conclusions as sensible and valid, tending
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The Art of Investigative Interviewing
to adhere dogmatically to their chosen ways (Berg and Bass 1961, p. 144). Thus interviewees may be defensive and make excuses for their actions (Wicks and Josephs 1972). To counter this fear, the investigator can, if emotionally strong, reveal some life experience that expresses personal vulnerabilities. Such action shows the interviewer’s humanness and approachability. Self-disclosure is scary to
us all.
Fear of Harming Others
Some interviewees act as a stand-in for someone else who is not even present, trying to maintain that person’s self-image (Bennis et al. 1973, p. 181). Knowing the inner self of someone else is a sacred trust, so interviewees may hesitate to reveal what they know about others. Even when interviewees feel a sense of civic duty to cooperate with an investigation, they may be reluctant to provide information that could cause harm to come to another.
Many recall the admonition, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
Hence, interviewing someone about a third party’s actions can be extremely difficult. You can help the interviewee overcome his or her reservations by suggesting that truthful cooperation will best serve the third party’s interest despite any immediate danger.
The Interviewer’s Task
Success in influencing the behavior of interviewees—in convincing them to answer questions honestly—begins with your attempt to understand and, to some extent, satisfy the needs underlying their behavior. The anticipation and satisfaction of needs is central to successful interviewing. If you fail to anticipate the interviewee’s needs, tension will develop, and unless the interviewee’s basic needs are fulfilled, the interview will be little more than a waste of time. We need to control or maintain a satisfactory relationship with other people with respect to power and influence. The investigator’s understanding of human nature, preparation, and strategy combine to help satisfy the interviewee’s
Human Needs and Deception in the Interview 21
needs (Nierenberg 1968). By actively listening, the investigator exhibits understanding and acceptance of the interviewee’s needs. By attempting to gain a deeper understanding of the interviewee’s needs, the investigator uncovers possible evasiveness and distress.
