Did you know that over 600 jurisdictions in the US employ electronic recording systems when they interrogate suspects yet the vast majority of police departments do not record custodial interviews routinely? While big changes have taken place this year when it comes to Federal requirements and recording, the number of departments responding to the evidence that recording and its far-reaching impacts is surprising.
So what should your police department know about ERI if you’re not using it? Here are at least three important pieces of information:
- Corroborating Evidence: To start what you should know is that in jurisdictions that record interviews, the ability to scrutinize the details of the interview, including discourse–the across-the-sentence-level conversation–to develop a comprehensive list of corroborating evidence is not only much easier to accomplish, but much easier to produce. In contrast, those who do not record forget up to a third of the details that might be provided and in turn, lose that corroborating evidence.
- Confessions: When it comes to preserving the details of your interviewee’s statement, ERI allows the investigator not only to obtain more corroborating evidence but also to increase the likelihood of a confession. Research suggests that corroborating evidence can increase the chance that a suspect, particularly a child sexual abuse subject, will confess (Tonya Lippert,Theodore P. Cross, Lisa Jones, and Wendy Walsh, Suspect Confession of Child Sexual Abuse to Investigators, 15 CHILD MALTREATMENT 161 (2010).
- Reducing the number of interviews and court appearances. As you know, many times a suspect must be interviewed more than once as a result of the fact that some detail can’t be remembered exactly. When you record a forensic interview, you reduce the need to run additional and unnecessary interviews and court appearances.
How much more efficient and organized would you be able to be if you could develop more corroborating evidence, elicit confessions more quickly and reduce the number of interviews and court appearances? Imagine how much more quickly you would close cases with these advantages.
These are the advantages and benefits (and more) which the iRecord audio and video recording system delivers. Contact us today to learn more!