Page 207 - Deception at work all chapters EBook

208 Deception at Work

• If there are any pieces of particularly incriminating evidence, such as forged documents,
you should consider enlarging them and having them pinned to the walls in the suspect’s
direct line of sight.

• If the suspect is known to smoke, the interview should be conducted in a smoking area.2
• If the interview is to be tape recorded, a test should be made to ensure that air conditioning

and other ambient noise does not spoil the quality of the recording.

At the start of the interview you may plan to sit behind a desk to the suspect’s left. As the
interview progresses, through the pivotal point and the turn, you may move from behind the
desk and sit alongside and close to him, thus reinforcing a nurturing parent role. But such
movements have to appear spontaneous and natural. At the pivotal point you should be sitting
close to the suspect and to his left.3

Under normal circumstances, a suspect should never be interviewed by more than two
people at a time, and even then the second person should try and stay out of his direct line of
sight and should remain silent unless the lead interviewer invites him to speak. The relation-
ship between the interviewer and the suspect should be a one-to-one as far as possible and the
room should be set up to establish the right transactional relationship.

After you have prepared the room and before the interview begins, ask a colleague who is
not involved in the case to walk in and give you his first impressions. It must appear clinically
professional.

Window

Suspect

Door

Interviewer

Figure 6.4 The interview room

2 Although denying the suspect the right to smoke may increase his anxiety it will be counter-productive in the later,
empathy-building stages; also his smoking is likely to disturb his lawyer
3 By now you should know why