Police officers go the extra mile to get confessions from suspects and as you might expect, there are many different ways to extract the information t

Police officers go the extra mile to get confessions from suspects and as you might expect, there are many different ways to extract the information that would result in a conviction. While there is some controversy with some of these techniques, especially when they lead to innocent people being convicted of crimes they did not commit, quite a few of them are the reason why many criminals are behind bars. Let’s take a look at how police officers get people to admit to their wrongdoings.  1. Mr. Big  Mr. Big, also known as the Canadian Technique, because it was created by Canada’s Royal Mounted Police in the 1990s, is a time-consuming method that is often reserved for uncooperative suspects. They start off by learning where the suspect hangs out, then the police befriend them while undercover. As their bond grows, they ask the suspect if they’re interested in “work” for the police’s “organization” and in many cases, it results in a yes. They start with small tasks then progresses to larger crimes, and eventually introduces them to the boss in the hopes of getting the suspect to say everything he’s done. If the suspect reveals his deeds, he is arrested seeing as he just confessed to the boss (another police officer).  2. Good Cop, Bad Cop Many people may not know this, but the Good Cop, Bad Cop interrogation technique is actually real, and it is used by police more often than we think. The name explains everything that the technique is: one officer, the bad cop, interrogates the suspect first in an aggressive manner in the hopes of intimidating them to get a confession. If the suspect does not confess, the good cop goes in and criticizes the bad cop’s tactics. He implores the suspect to confess to receive a lighter punishment. If all goes well, the suspect will confess to the good cop.  3. Field Interview Police don’t always have to arrest a suspect before conducting an interrogation. Oftentimes, they conduct informal interrogations known as field interviews. These interviews are unstructured and conducted outside of police stations, and surprisingly many people don’t realize what’s happening. The small talk that occurs during traffic stops is considered a field interview and they’re not required to tell you anything, but they are required to identify themselves. A general rule to follow is that if a police officer asks you anything beyond your name and address, it is considered a field interview. 4. Lying A little-known fact is that police officers are allowed to lie to people, and they often do to get a confession… and there's no limit to what they can say. The police can claim to have DNA evidence, an accomplice’s confession, and even eyewitness sources pinning the suspect at the scene of the crime, even when they were not there. A common lie told by some police is that what they (suspects) say will not be used in court, but it can be. They can also give lie detector tests and lie about the results or say that they would switch off the recorder to persuade them to give an unrecorded confession when they don’t.  5. Minimization and Maximization Minimization and maximization are two techniques that although are different, share many similarities because they have the same premise. Minimization is used to make a crime seem much smaller than it is. Police used this to trick suspects into thinking that their punishment is not as bad as they think it is. Maximization, on the other hand, is used to make crimes seem much worse than they are. Interrogators would threaten long jail times and bargain for a confession with a lighter sentence. These techniques have been called controversial because some suspects have ended up with harsher punishments.

Common Interrogation Techniques Used by the Police

Recent Posts

Categories

Get Triviabright in your inbox.