Continuing education is a necessary component of any profession. Even after years and years on the job, people can always benefit from learning a few new “tricks of the trade.” For public safety professionals and detectives, that often relates to advancing their interview and interrogation techniques.
Get Better Interview Evidence for Your Case
The conversations you have in the interview room can make or break a case. As such, you want to make sure you’re providing the court with the most informative and accurate evidence as possible. Regular reviews of your practices can help ensure you stay on track.
1. Check your emotions at the door
This is a hallmark of any professional interaction. But it might matter even more for interview evidence. Patience is key, and opening the conversation on the right foot will help set the tone for the entire interrogation. Working with a suspect who is in a more neutral state of mind is important. Part of this might mean letting them know how long you think the process will take. Obviously you want their cooperation. If you can prime them to have that similar “patience” mindset, you’ll be in a better position to get the information you need.
2. Build rapport to gather more information
Starting with the basics is always best. The more nuanced questions need more time, so the early part of your dialogue will hopefully work to put people at ease. In some ways, this shouldn’t much different than any other typical social situation. Some detectives suggest that you find something in common to talk about for a friendly introduction. But it’s also just a matter of reading body language. When you have someone feeling a little more relaxed, they’ll be more likely to respond appropriately—even when it comes the tougher questions.
3. Embrace new techniques—and modern equipment
Productive interviews lead to priceless evidence for your case. Being open to new interrogation techniques is a good call no matter how long you’ve been involved with law enforcement and public safety. Sharing tips across departments and professional collaboration is one side of that. Another area for improvement often relates to your team’s tools.
The best interview recording equipment for your department should be easy to use and give you a truly seamless process to start and stop your recordings. From there, you’ll want to have an easy way to make redactions and share your audio video files with the appropriate parties. Your interview room equipment and security protocols should evolve just as consistently as your other training programs. Getting the right systems in place truly benefits everyone.
At iRecord, we’ve devoted ourselves to designing and building the best recording solutions for those who protect and serve. For years, we’ve been taking notes and advice directly from the people who use our solutions on a day-to-day basis. That way, we know exactly how to improve our systems to be the best of the best. That’s led us to creating an intuitive start/stop recording function with a simple wall switch, to straight-forward software for reviewing your evidence.
If you’d like to discuss your team’s options for new interview room recording equipment, we’d be happy to help! Send us a message to learn more. We’re here to help your team be as efficient as possible!