Archive for December, 2008
Force Science News #112: A Compilation of Important Memory Issues
[Editor’s note: Memory is often a wild card in officer-involved shooting investigations. Involved officers typically don’t remember certain things that happened or they remember them incorrectly or their recollections conflict with accounts of other witnesses. This is frustrating and often suspicious to investigators.
[Just how memory works is still the subject of intense exploration by neuroscientists. Much of what is known unfortunately has been slow to reach law enforcement circles. In this transmission, Force Science News presents 3 reports on recent memory-related developments that can help reviewers of force incidents better understand the challenges of accurate recall that they may confront.] Read the rest of this entry »
Force Science News #111: Do’s and Don’ts of questioning young suspects in major crimes
The 8-year-old Arizona boy recently alleged to have fatally shot his father and another man with a .22-cal. rifle is not the first child of tender years to be accused of a brutal crime. Nor, given today’s pervasive violence, will he likely be the last.
If the next strikes in your jurisdiction, how can your agency most effectively—and least controversially—elicit the facts of what happened from a grade school-age suspect who’s deceptive or uncommunicative out of fear or sheer willfulness?
Read the rest of this entry »
