Upping our game the way
forward for investigative
interviewing
Dr. Becky Milne
Centre of Forensic Interviewing
University of Portsmouth
What is an investigator’s job:
reactive investigation?

Two Primary investigative questions:
 What
happened? If anything did happen?
 Who
committed the offence?
Milne and Bull (2006)
How do investigators answer
these two primary investigative
questions?
Gather information from a number of
sources (Kebbell & Milne, 1998)
 People
 Interview is pivotal – wide definition
 Performance measure: quality and quantity
of information - contamination
 Interviewer behaviour

Importance of interviewing: suspects
Miscarriages of Justice (Cardiff 3 etc).
 Central to acquittal - police interview with
suspects
 McGurk et al (1994) - most frequent task
 Milne and Bull (1999) - most important job
 Limited guidance to do this ethically
 PACE and PEACE developed
 Minimal training around the globe

Aim of PEACE
“Course aimed to ensure that the basic
interviewing skills necessary to apply
the model were developed for the
interviewing of all interviewees
(witnesses, victims and suspects) with
integrity and in accordance with the
law.
Shaw (1996)
Did PEACE work? – suspects
Clarke and Milne (2002)

P&P:

Engage & Explain:
 Good:
 Poor:

conform to legal requirements
check understanding of caution
interview process and purpose
rapport
Account: average skill level
 Good:
 Poor:

average skill level
self-confident and communication skills
relevant topics and questioning
Summaries, links and challenges
Closure: poor skills level
PACE (1984): Sections 76 or 78
10% (17) breaches

5 oppression
 Undue
pressure and bullying
 Continual challenge
3 mental health issues
 7 legal requirements

 Failure
to caution
 Explanations missing concerning legal advice

2 other
 Background
noise
 Overuse leading questions
PEACE and counter-fraud


Formally adopted for public sector fraud
investigations in 1990s
Walsh & Milne (2006) – DWP
 99
interviews benefit fraud suspect interviews
 Good use of open questions- facilitated info from
suspect
 Legal and ethical
 Poor rapport
 Poor planning
 Not covering points to prove sufficiently
 Lack summaries
 Reasons for committing offence
Shawyer & Milne (2009)




Questionnaire and examined actual interviews
DWP and police fraud interviews/ers
Advantages
‘…it focuses the mind on the interview with crib
notes. It helps on the format and flow of
questions…’ (DWP)
Disadvantages
‘…PEACE in (some) cases is often a
“sledgehammer to crack a nut”…’ (DWP)
Performance in interviews





Planning and prep. – good performance
Rapport – poor
Checked caution understanding appropriate
Use of questions poor
 Few open questions
 Majority appropriate closed
 Some leading
Closure adequate
Walsh & Milne (2007)

Questionnaire to investigators and managers
– views
 General
support
 Is it effective?
 Time
 Inflexibility
 Supervisory
of the model
framework to ensure standards
The importance of witnesses/victims
Sanders (1986) - central and most important
feature of criminal investigations
 Kebbell and Milne (1998) - central leads
 Milne and Bull (1999) - cornerstone of
investigation

 often
no other forensically relevant info.
 Planning and preparation prior to suspect
interview
 outlines areas to prove an offence
 determines possible offenders
Clarke & Milne (2002)

Interviewing was poor

Limited use CI or CM

Closed questioning style

Interviewer driven and confirmatory
“far more leading questions asked, most
interviewers didn’t allow the witness to tell
their account and the interviews were mainly
police led”
ACPO Five Tiers

Tier 1:
Probationer and police staff

Tier 2:
Uniform investigators & detectives

Tier 3:
Specialist Interviewers

Tier 4:
Interview manager (supervision)/PIP

Tier 5:
Specialist interview management
and co-ordination
Do the Tiers work?: Suspects
Griffiths and Milne (2005)

Study one – Does advanced interviewing
work?
 49 AIs
 Pre
examined – assessment
and post training examination – simulations
 Improvements
across all skill areas
Pre- training
Mean
SD
Post- training
Mean
SD
Overall
3.18
0.31
4.19*
0.35
E&E
2.68
0.53
4.15*
0.35
Legal Beh
3.95
0.46
4.54*
0.30
Rapport Behs
1.96
0.75
3.96*
0.42
Account
2.83
0.50
4.08*
0.48
Topics
2.96
0.54
4.02*
0.61
Summarising
2.33
0.77
3.90*
0.78
Do the Tiers work?: Suspects
Griffiths and Milne (2005)

Study two –
Do skills transfer to real life?
Do the skills stay over time?
 End
of course baseline vs real life within 6 months
(mean 3 months) vs real life 10 months plus (mean 19
months)
 27 AIs = 81 interviews
 Transference immediately into the workplace
 Skill erosion seen over time
Post-training
Mean (SD)
Real-life
Time 1
Mean (SD)
Real-life
Time 2
Mean (SD)
E&E
4.12 (0.34)
4.08 (0.35)
3.81 (0.52)*
Legal Beh
4.54 (0.31)
4.58 (0.25)
4.50 (0.29)
Rapport Behs
3.91 (0.41)
3.73 (0.51)
3.45 (0.80)*
Account
3.94 (0.76)
3.81 (0.76)
3.55 (0.80)*
Topics
3.91 (0.72)
3.88 (0.93)
3.74 (0.84)
Summarising
3.68 (0.66)
3.40 (0.98)
2.89 (1.23)*
Conclusions: the future

Front-line interviews:
 Dando,
Wilcock, Milne & Henry (2010): quick and not
complex
 Telephone
exchange – call handling

Technology

Counter-fraud specific interview model?

Detecting deceit
 Using
the ECI – reverse order recall (Vrij, Mann,
Fisher, Leal, Milne & Bull, 2008)