Page 143 - Malcolm Gladwell - Talking to Strangers

lanes, or start from a parked position.” (In the event that Bland had used her turn signal at the very
last moment, just before she changed lanes, Encinia even had a backup option: part (b) of Section
545.104 holds that “An operator intending to turn a vehicle right or left shall signal continuously for
not less than the last 100 feet of movement of the vehicle before the turn.” He could have stopped
her for not signaling and he could have stopped her for not signaling enough.) 1
Encinia gets out of his squad car and slowly approaches Bland’s Hyundai from the passenger
side, leaning in slightly to see if there’s anything of interest in the car. He’s doing the visual pat-
down: Anything amiss? Fast-food wrappers on the floor? A felony forest hanging from the rearview
mirror? Tools on the back seat? Single key on the key ring? Bland had just driven to Texas from
Chicago; of course she had food wrappers on the floor. In the normal course of events, most of us
looking in that window would cast our doubts aside. But Brian Encinia is the new breed of police
officer. And we have decided that we would rather our leaders and guardians pursue their doubts
than dismiss them. Encinia leans in the window, tells her why he pulled her over, and—immediately
—his suspicions are raised.

3.

Renfro: OK. After you asked Bland for her driver’s license, you then asked her where she was
headed and she replied, “It doesn’t matter.” You wrote in your report, “I knew at this point
based on her demeanor that something was wrong.”
In his deposition, Encinia is now being questioned by state investigator Cleve Renfro.
Renfro: Explain for the recording what you thought was wrong.
Encinia: …It was an aggressive body language and demeanor. It appeared that she was not okay.
Brian Encinia believed in transparency—that people’s demeanor is a reliable guide to their
emotions and character. This is something we teach one another. More precisely, it is something we
teach police officers. The world’s most influential training program for law enforcement, for
example, is called the Reid Technique. It is used in something like two-thirds of U.S. state police
departments—not to mention the FBI and countless other law-enforcement agencies around the
world—and the Reid system is based directly on the idea of transparency: it instructs police officers,
when dealing with people they do not know, to use demeanor as a guide to judge innocence and
guilt.
For example, here is what the Reid training manual says about eye contact:
In Western culture, mutual gaze (maintained eye contact) represents openness, candor, and trust.
Deceptive suspects generally do not look directly at the investigator; they look down at the floor,
over to the side, or up at the ceiling as if to beseech some divine guidance when answering
questions.…
Truthful suspects, on the other hand, are not defensive in their looks or actions and can easily
maintain eye contact with the investigator.
The post–Kansas City textbook, Tactics for Criminal Patrol, instructs officers in police stops to
conduct a “concealed interrogation,” based on what they can gather from their initial observation of
the suspect.

As you silently analyze their stories, their verbal mannerisms, and their body language for
deception cues, you’ll be trying to convince them that suspicion is far from your mind.…The
longer you can delay their tumbling to the fact that you are actually appraising them, their
vehicle, and their reason for being in transit, the more likely they are to unwittingly provide you
with incriminating evidence.
So that is exactly what Encinia does. He notices that she’s stomping her feet, moving them back
and forth. So he starts to stretch out their interaction. He asks her how long she has been in Texas.
She says, “Got here just yesterday.” His sense of unease mounts. She has Illinois plates. What is she
doing in Texas?
Renfro: Did you have safety concerns at that point?