Week 2: Police suspect interviews
Introduction
Welcome to Week 2! In this week, as the case develops and gets a little more complex, you will start to learn about the psychology of how the police interview people suspected of committing criminal acts. You will see that this differs from how they interview witnesses. You will learn a little about the history of how police suspect interviews have been carried out and will learn about the contributions psychology has made to police practice in this area
Following the briefing that you saw at the end of last week SIO Harris has decided that Neale should be arrested, so this week you will be planning and preparing for Neale’s interview as a suspect.
While last week Neale was interviewed as a witness, his status how now changed. A change of status from witness to suspect or from suspect to witness can happen in investigations, as it can become apparent that someone who initially is suspected of committing the crime is in fact a witness and vice versa. This change of status means some changes for the interviews. For example, someone being interviewed as a suspect has to be given the standard legal caution.
In your journey through this week, you will not only think carefully about the topics you might want to cover in the interview with Neale, but will also learn a little about the interpersonal dynamics of police suspect interviews.