5.3 Expert analysis of the interview so far from

But you must have some evidence to have arrested me.

We do.

Well, what is it?

What is what?

What is the evidence? Why am I sat here being treated like a suspect when earlier on in the week, you were interviewing me as a witness, or at least I thought you were.

Yes, we were. We were then but then other stuff has come up.

Well, what is that supposed to mean?

Don’t you worry about that.

Well, I think I’ve got a right to be worried! You’re telling me I’m accused of killing my father. For fuck’s sake!

So we’ve been watching DI Bullet. What do you he think of his interview?

Oh, this is not a good example of how to interview a police suspect at all. I would be deeply unhappy with it. The main problem is that the overall tone of the interview was very maladaptive and we know that maladaptive behaviour is problematic for rapport. If we go back to the original interpersonal circumplex, we can see– according to those two axes– the main place that Bullet was positioned was somewhere around the dominant and hostile position. So if we go first to those dominant behaviours, we saw examples of them being quite demanding of the suspect, so saying things like, I’ll ask the questions, this is my interview, not yours. And also saying things like, can you look at me?

So, instructional demands. We also saw examples of rigidity. So, if you don’t stop swearing, I’m going to have to terminate the interview. And as well as that, we saw examples of parental and patronising behaviour, so talking down to the suspect. Things like, I’m going to have to ask you to moderate your tone. All of those things are problematic for rapport. We also notice that DI Bullet seems to go a little bit away from the PEACE model of conversation management. He starts to challenge the suspect about his account before he actually asks his suspect for his account and that’s a bit of a problem too.

Now in terms of the hostile behaviours, we see those in the section of the interview where he starts to challenge the account about the patio doors. He makes a really terrible comment, which is, turns out that was a lie, to the suspect. And that comment is both argumentative and judgmental. So that’s a problem too. From the point of view of our suspect, Neale, he’s exactly where we’d expect him to be, given the dominance of Bullet. He’s in a submissive position and we can see that that submission is also maladaptive, in that he is irritable and distrustful. And so, that predictable pattern has indeed emerged in this interview.

So all of these things combined make me think that this is an interview which is really– I’m deeply unhappy with it, basically.

So if he continues like this, what do you think’s going to happen?

I think it’s reasonably likely if he carries on in this vein that the suspect will just shut down and stop talking to him.

I have to say, Mr Anderson I’m finding your attitude very unhelpful.