FBI Interview & Interrogation

FBI Interviewing & Interrogations Class
The Southwest Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy will be hosting an Interviewing & Interrogations Class being conducted by the FBI on July 22-23, 2024.  This two-day course is designed specifically for law enforcement officers and will provide continuing education on various disciplines to include active listening, detecting deception, cognitive interviewing, strategic introduction of evidence, and various interview and interrogation strategies.  The class will use both lecture and interactive learning techniques to engage participants in successful interrogation strategies.  This course is designed for all levels of experience.

Course Highlights

·         Cognition and Memory – Instructors will show how impression management can be used to set the tone for a good interview. By showing how memory works, and how information is recalled, instructors will show how to get a greater yield of accurate information from an interview. Instructors will show how perception affects an interview and how perceptions can be managed throughout the interview process.

·         Planning an Interview – Instructors will cover concepts important in planning such as; Facts, Intelligence, Inferences, and Assumptions. Instructors will also expound on how Culture and Branding should be considered when preparing for an interview. Instructors will also show how preparing opening lines and anticipating predictable dialogue are a key part of the planning process.

·         Questioning Strategies – Instructors will show how a topical approach funneled down to clear interview objectives gives great flexibility and reduces the cognitive load of the investigator. Instructors will show how the use of open-ended questioning strategies gets a larger yield of accurate information.

·         Rapport – Instructors will clearly define what rapport actually is, and how it is to be maintained throughout the interaction with the interviewee. The struggle every person has against biases will be highlighted, and a strategy to overcome or set aside biases will be explained. Non-verbal techniques to build rapport will also be demonstrated.

·         Motivational Interviewing – Considered the ethos of the interview, instructors will show how the use of concepts such as autonomy, adaptation, acceptance, empathy, and evocation throughout the interview are paramount. Also, instructors will show, using the Interpersonal Behavior Wheels, how a power dynamic in an interview can be properly addressed and managed.

·         Principles of Influence – Instructors will show how concepts such as reciprocity, commitment to consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity can be used to the investigator’s advantage in an interview.

·         Credibility Assessment – Instructors will go over misconceptions about detecting deception, and concepts on how to do a credibility assessment of behaviors is a more practically applied method to interviewing.

·         Evidence Presentation/Strategic Use of Evidence – Instructors will go over the three best ways to introduce evidence into an interview to access credibility, provide orientation for the interview, and to produce waypoints for a greater yield of accurate information.

Tuition: There is no charge to attend this training.

In-service: Career Development Hours will be awarded.

Registration: Register through TRACER or contact Darrell Dickenson.