interviews
Selecting the best approach
When preparing for an investigative interview there are many factors that one should consider. What is the interviewee’s role in the investigation? What information do you currently have that prompted this interview and what information would you be seeking during conversation? How do you go about exploring and obtaining that information? What questions would be relevant during the interview? Most importantly, what approach and method should you utilize?
There are many different interview methods and approaches that can be used to obtain information from your interviewee. At times the most effective approach is a simple fact gathering interview. Remember, with any fact gathering interview, always as more open-ended questions and invite the narrative and their disclose to emerge.
If your interviewee is a complainant or witness to an incident, often the most impactful method of interviewing might be the Cognitive Interview; an advanced form of fact-gathering interview where you can further explore the details of their account with advanced questioning.
Other interviews might require you to explore and eliminate potential explanations coming from your interviewee so a very strategic Participatory Method approach would assist in explore circumstantial evidence linked to the investigation.
Lastly there may be other instances where building credibility with an Introductory Statement is extremely valuable in impacting the amount of detail and actionable information you are able to obtain from your interviewee.
Ultimately all of these non-confrontational investigative interview approaches fit into the WZ Method, but knowing strategically which approach is the best for your current interview is very important to a skilled interviewer.
by Chris Norris, CFI
