Archive for October, 2011
Force Science News #189: 5 tips for officers in use-of-force interviews, Part 2 & more
Training note: Congratulations to the 54 newly minted Certified Force Science Analysts who graduated from our recent Certification Course in Ontario, Canada! We were honored to have worked with such a bright, dedicated and enthusiastic group of professionals. Well done!
The new 2012 Force Science Certification Course schedule has now been released. CLICK HERE to download the full schedule or you can visit: www.forcescience.org/2012certification.pdf. If you need hotel information for use in submitting a request to your department, please e-mail our staff at training@forcescience.org and let us know the location you’re interested in. We’ll get our hotel recommendation for that location off to you immediately.
In this issue:
Force Science News #188: Overcoming the “Achilles heel” of use-of-force investigations, Part 1
Part 1 of a 2-part series
As an expert in interviewing skills, Dr. Ed Geiselman has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to officers being questioned by investigators after use-of-force events.
Recently he was asked to review transcripts and audio recordings of interviews in cases where LEOs’ jobs were on the line because of allegedly inappropriate force. In each he concluded that poor interviewing techniques had hampered the officers in their efforts to explain their actions adequately. One interview, he told Force Science News, was the worst he’d come across in his 28 years of working with law enforcement.
“In many cases,” Geiselman says, “interviewing involved officers remains the Achilles heel of otherwise good investigations. When an interviewer fails to thoroughly and accurately mine an officer’s memory, everyone loses.”
With his recent reviews still fresh in his mind, we asked Geiselman, a UCLA psychology professor and a faculty member of the Force Science Analysis certification course, what lessons he’d offer investigators for conducting fair, impartial, and comprehensive interviews in OISs and other critical-incident cases.
