Interviewing
Fact-Finding Interview Strategies
A fact-finding interview is extremely important for any investigation. But fact-finding interviews need to be strategically planned. You should do a thorough investigation – before that interview takes place – to identify what pieces of information that you need to fill during the interview.
Try to determine:
- Are there any loopholes, exceptions, or explanations?
- Are there any gaps in the investigation that need to be filled?
You want to make sure those gaps are filled with relevant, reliable, and truthful information. So even during a fact-finding interview, when you get additional information from the subject, it’s important that you further investigate and substantiate that information afterwards.
It’s also important to not have tunnel vision during a fact-finding interview. These interviews are intended to get as much information as possible. The more information an investigator has, the easier it should be to conclude a resolution on the investigation.
Fact-finding interviews should include open-ended questions. Allow the subject to tell their untainted version of the story. Listen for different words and qualifiers used by the subject so you can further probe those areas of enquiry for your investigation.
Fact-finding interviews are more about the subject’s perception of what happened and should never be about the investigator’s tunnel vision. Never shortcut an investigation when your goal is to get the truth.
