General Interrogation Techniques


You know the police are really trying to manipulate you when they offer a legal defense or moral justification for what you’re accused of doing, or imply that what happened was due to an accident or to circumstances beyond your control.1 In applying this tactic, the interrogator frequently offers the suspect two choices, for example: a believable explanation or an unbelievable one; an honorable excuse or a dishonorable one. Of course, both choices are still damaging admissions—it’s just that one sounds better than the other. Imagine the following lines said by a sympathetic, understanding police officer in a warm, reassuring tone of voice:

Legal Defense

• I understand what you’re saying…he threatened you,
and essentially you were acting in self-defense.

• Okay, we’ve got you for possession of marijuana. But
what isn’t clear to me is: were you just out to get
stoned, or were you maybe using it for medical
purposes?

Moral Justification

• What I’m wondering is whether you needed that
money so you could take care of your kids and get
them decent food and clothes and all—or did you just
do it because you wanted drugs or new Nikes or
whatever?

• Well, that’s a perfectly normal reaction. When a man
finds out that his wife is sleeping with another guy,
he’s going to want to go out and do something about it.

Accident or Circumstances Beyond Control

• Now, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know. Only you know
what really happened. But I’m thinking that when two
people get into it, when there’s an argument, stuff can
happen that nobody ever intended. I mean, you
could’ve just been shoving each other around, and he
could’ve fallen and hit his head by accident—just plain
bad luck.

• Obviously there’s a difference between being an active
participant and being a bystander. It’s one thing to be
actually involved in selling the drugs, and it’s another
thing to just be in the house when some other guys are
doing a deal there. But the way things look, you could
be either one. And the only way we’re going to be able
to figure out what your real role was, is if you talk to us.

Another common aspect of Reid interrogation is minimization/maximization, contrasting the worst case scenario with the best possible outcome.

• You know, there’s a lot of different ways this case
could be charged. Anywhere from first-degree
murder—that gets you life without parole—all the way
down to involuntary manslaughter, for which people
typically get probation. What we’re doing right now is
trying to understand what really happened, so we can
make a decision which way to go…

Often the police will even say, “Look, I’m not making any promises…” and then imply that confessing will result in a better outcome in court: lesser charges, a more favorable sentence, etc. This is a lie. The police are not authorized to offer leniency in exchange for a confession. Only the prosecutor or judge can make a plea bargain.2

All law enforcement officers are trained to question suspects. Very few civilians have any practice in spotting or withstanding the interrogation techniques police use against them. It’s pretty stupid to play such lousy odds when your liberty’s at stake.

It’s initially surprising that the Good Cop Bad Cop routine works so well, since it’s generally so obvious. You’ve seen it in hundreds of TV shows and movies, and most people consider it a cliché. Yet law enforcement officers use it in every city, every day…because it works nearly every time. And a big reason it works so well is that when you’ve just been arrested, you’re extremely vulnerable. You’re thinking of all the horrible things that are likely to happen: going to jail, disappointing your loved ones, being publicly disgraced, losing your job, failing school, etc. On top of that, if you’ve been in custody all day or all night, you’ll be suffering from fatigue and hunger, and perhaps other physical stresses. So, psychologically, you’re a sitting duck. And even though you know, intellectually, that the good cop is just trying to manipulate you, you cannot help having hope and trust in the one person in this awful situation who seems to be on your side. It’s a tough problem, but there is a solution. The answer is to train your mind, so that you say I’m going to remain silent. I would like to see a lawyer, no matter how upset you’re feeling or how kind the officer seems. “Don’t just practice until you can get it right, practice until you can’t get it wrong.”

Of course, sometimes the cops aren’t pretending. The bad cop may, in fact, have lost his temper and be yelling at you for real. Or the good cop may truly want to help you, and may think that your answering questions will somehow benefit you. But whether or not the cops are sincere, your strategy remains the same. You should still say: I’m going to remain silent. I would like to see a lawyer. Because if the bad cop really does want to make trouble for you, your giving a statement will make it easy for him. And the good cop, in urging you to answer questions, is giving you bad advice. Some officers honestly think that if a suspect makes a statement, it will be helpful. But it doesn’t work that way in court. Prosecutors can almost always find something in suspects’ statements that can be used against them. That’s why, when you do tell your side of the story, you should do it with the help of your defense attorney—so that your words can’t be twisted or misquoted.

If you’re arrested with friends, make an agreement that no one will make statements to the police until everyone’s been able to talk to a lawyer and decide calmly what to do. Be aware of the paranoia that tends to set in after people have been separated.

Warning: Do not have a strategy discussion in the backseat of a police car!

If you’ve been arrested with someone else, and the cops lock the two of you in their car and walk away, you can bet dollars to donuts that they’re recording your conversation. So if you’re in this situation, just remind the other person that the smart thing to do is to say: I’m going to remain silent. I would like to see a lawyer. And leave any further discussion until later.

When you’re in jail, don’t talk to your cell-mates about what happened to you or who was with you—because you really don’t want them testifying at your trial or sentencing hearing. Don’t even talk about mutual acquaintances. Stick to safe topics such as movies, music, sports, etc. You’ll make it a lot harder for anyone to snitch on you, if you don’t snitch on yourself.


1. John Reid codified these tactics, referring to them as the "Nine Steps of Interrogation." Reid and his partner Fred Inbau spent decades writing about and teaching interrogation techniques, and business is still booming at http://reid.com/. In U.S. police acadamies, their books have been the most popular texts on this subject. Their work is full of sample scripts, generally involving a hapless suspect named Joe: "Joe, if this whole thing was your idea, that tells me that you have a criminal mind. But if you were just talked into doing this against your better judgment, that would be important to include in my report. You were just talked into it, weren't you?" For examples of how such techniques get innocent people to confess to crimes, take a look at the work of Richard Ofshe, at http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/OFSHE/.

2. There's a difference between confessing and snitching. A law enforcement officer can't offer you a deal in return for a confession, but he can make a snitch deal. See Informants.