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  • Celebrating 20 Years of Training Excellence 2004-2024

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  • Intro to Science-Based Interviewing

Students will be able to conduct a more ethical and insightful interview
based on science-based methodologies.  Students will be able to organize data to assist them in planning for an interview to include interview maps and considerations of perspectives and impressions to create and rehearse Opening Lines.  Students will be able to apply ORBIT to build and maintain rapport in an interview and create and apply an evidentiary plan, including practicing the Strategic Use of Evidence.  Additionally, students will discuss memory models to assist with and conduct a cognitive interview.

This course is interactive using various adult-learning methodologies: lecture, facilitation, audio/visual aids and practical exercises. At the conclusion of this training, students will be able to conduct interviews that are based on scientific research. This course is compliant with current research and legal prohibitions on the use of pseudo-science and psychological coercion as specified in AB2644, regardless of the interviewee’s age.

Seminar Highlights

  • History of SBI
  • Planning the interview
  • First Impressions
  • Warmth and Competence
  • Branding
  • Interview Maps
  • Opening Lines and Predictable Dialogue
  • Rapport and Active Listening
  • ORBIT
  • Active Rapport
  • HEEAAR Principle
  • Memory and Cognition
  • Cognition and Cognitive Interview
  • Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE)
  • Student exercises

Course Outline

Expanded Course Outline

Overview & Introductions

  • Welcome
  • Course expectations/POST documentation
  • Introduction of Instructors/Coaches
  • Introduction of students
  • Student expectations of course

Planning & Analysis

  • Process called The Boards (Data Assessment)
  • Identify; Facts/Information/Inferences/Gaps/Objectives
  • Chart these
  • Breathing, living document that could change as interview evolves

Impression Management

  • Thought processing
  • Biases
  • Stereotype Content Model
  • Warmth & Competence

Brand Identification & Management

  • Personal branding
  • Perspectives wheel modeling
  • How we see subject
  • How the subject sees themselves
  • How subject sees us
  • Who do we need to be?

Engage and Explain

  • First Lines & Predictable Dialogue

Questioning Strategies

  • Framing Questions
  • TED
  • Interview Maps

Observing Rapport-Based Interpersonal Techniques (ORBIT)

  • What is rapport
  • What is not rapport

HEEAAR Principle

  • Honesty
  • Empathy
  • Evocation
  • Autonomy
  • Adaptation
  • Reflection
  • Obstacles to listening

Cognition and Cognitive Interview

  • Research based
  • Memory enhancing
  • Not based on question/answer
  • Define roles/expectations
  • Explain purpose of the interview
  • Explain the ground rules and expectations
  • Encourage active participation
  • Request a free narrative
  • Context reinstatement
  • Form a mental image of the scene
  • Put back in context of the scene to remember more details
  •  Vision, Smell, Sound, Taste, Temperature, Use all senses; No detail is too small
  • Supplemental memory techniques
  • Reverse order
  • Sketching

Credibility assessment

  • We have been taught that we are good at detecting deception
  • We are good at being lied to not at detecting when someone lies
  • Studies show we are just over 50% chance of detecting deception
  • Beliefs about deception
  • Visual cue research
  • Verbal cue research
  • Indicators of credibility
  • Inclusion of quotations
  • Inclusion of unexpected incidents (complications)
  • Inclusion of verifiable details
  • Inclusion of Spontaneous corrections
  • Presence of these does not necessarily mean truth-telling
  • Absence of these does not necessarily mean deception

Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE)

  • Having a plan versus not having a plan
  • Evaluate evidence
  • Available evidence
  • Validated evidence
  • What does this evidence tell us?
  • What am I willing to use this evidence for?
  • Engage and Explain
  • Elicit Information/Prompt Memory
  • Confront Deception
  •  Disclosure
  • Early disclosure
  • Late disclosure
  • SUE Funnels
  • Start wide
  • Close-ended questions
  • Bring the subject into evidence slowly
  • Provide multiple opportunities to tell the truth or deny
  • Lock them into a statement
  • If at any time, they answer YES, go to TED
  • Evidence Framing Matrix

Seminar Speakers

  • Incredible training with amazing real world instruction. I have been taking law enforcement classes for over 30 years and by far this is the best presented and most useful.

    —Det. Brian Dale, Portland Police Bureau

  • This was, by far, one of the most useful training classes I've attended since becoming an investigator.

    —Steven Aiello, Antioch Police Department

  • I will continue to use and pass on this information because I really believe in the instructors and their approach.

    —Kimberly Meyer, Washoe County Sheriff's Department

  • I highly recommend this training for any Probation staff who have the necessity to interview/interrogate individuals for investigation purposes.

    —R. Bret Fidler, Santa Clara County Probation Department

  • Effective teaching teams! The presentation of the material was consistently interesting, and intelligent without being too intellectualized.

    —Michele Keller, Deputy Probation Officer, County of Alameda

  • This was, by far and away the best training I have received in 15 plus years of Law Enforcement. The instructors are experienced, engaging, articulate, and very entertaining. I will be recommending this training to multiple agencies.

    —Mark Paynter, Oregon DOC

  • Your training has made the greatest and most direct impact on my assignment of any training class that I've taken.

    —Ken Gelskey, National City Police Department

  • It not often that you go to a training that you really, really want to pay attention to. Because of the high quality information and style of presentation, I knew that if I looked away I was going to miss out.

    —Quinten Graves, Oregon State Police

  • Your training gave me the confidence and tools to interview the suspect for over 5 hours and to bring a closure to the case.

    —Daniel Phelan, San Jose Police Department

  • This training provided the useful tools necessary for assessing the veracity of a suspected child abuser, which goes a long way in helping to protect children.

    —Sunny Burgan, MSSW, LCSW, Social Work Supervisor, Santa Clara County DFCS

  • The information presented was highly relevant to my job and was presented in a manner that was organized and very easy to digest.

    —Michael McGarvey, California State Prison, San Quentin

  • This training by far has been the most informative and most effective I've attended. The instructors engaged the students in a manner that made me want to speak my opinion, ask questions, and participate.

    —Julio Ibarra, Merced County Sheriff’s Office

  • Instructional style is engaging and highly effective.

    —George Laing, Fire Prevention Captain, Investigator

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