interviewing witnesses 1 the memory process · equally to the interviewing of witnesses, victims...

Protective Marking Not Protectively MarkedPublication Scheme NTitle Interviewing Witnesses 1 - The Memory ProcessVersion 5Summary Student Lesson NoteBranch/OCU HR3(7)Author Mick English c082060Date created 03rd February 2010Review date 03rd February 2013

Lesson 094

Metropolitan Police ServiceDirectorate of Training and Development

Police Constable Foundation Course

Interviewing Witnesses1

The Memory Process

Interviewing Witnesses 1 - The Memory Process/094

© Metropolitan Police Authority. 03.02.10CST Police Constable Foundation Training

Contents

Introduction..................................................... 3Objectives ....................................................... 6Memory is not Total ....................................... 7Memory is Organised..................................... 8Memory is Processed Through Stages ....... 9Short Term Memory ...................................... 10Working Memory ............................................ 10Long Term Memory ........................................ 12Factors Affecting Memory............................. 14

Assumption............................................. 14Perception and Attitudes ...................... 15Implanting ............................................... 16Forgetting ............................................... 16Time Since the Event ............................ 17Blocks...................................................... 17

How you can assist Retrieval ....................... 18Uninterrupted account .......................... 18Re-instating the context ....................... 19Episodes ................................................. 19Topics ...................................................... 20Concentration......................................... 20Relaxation ............................................... 21Witnesses to Major / MassFataltiy incidents ................................... 22Witness First Account........................... 23Care of Witness...................................... 23The Media ................................................ 23

Summary ......................................................... 25

© 2010 Metropolitan Police Authority.

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Subject to Crown Copyright. Enquiries telephone 020 8358 1668.

Lesson verified by The Crime Academy (SCD20) - June 2006.


Interviewing Witnesses 1 -The memory Porcess/094

Most of the occurrences that you will deal with as a Police Officer willhave happened before you arrive. Before you can decide on anappropriate course of action you will have to find out what took placefrom someone who was present at the time.

Most crimes will be committed in your absence. Most of the evidenceto support a prosecution will come from people who witnessed thecrime.

Fundamental to any investigation is the quality of evidence obtainedfrom interviews of both witnesses and suspects.

An interview is more than a PACE suspect interview, it can range froma street conversation, to dealing with vulnerable victims and witnesses,through to interviewing suspects under PACE.

The approach police use to obtain information from victims, witnessesand suspects, is termed “investigative interviewing”. This approach isbased on seven control principles which apply universally whatever thestatus of the interviewee.



Seven Principles of Investigative Interviewing(Taken from Home Office Circular 22/1992)

The ACPO Steering Group on Investigative Interviewing approved thefollowing seven Principles of Investigative Interviewing which applyequally to the interviewing of witnesses, victims and suspects.

1. The role of investigative interviewing is to obtain accurate and reliableinformation from suspects, witnesses or victims in order to discoverthe truth about matters under police investigation.

2. Investigative interviewing should be approached with an open mind.Information obtained from the person who is being interviewed shouldalways be tested against what the interviewing officer already knowsor what can reasonably be established.

3. When questioning anyone a police officer must act fairly in thecircumstances of each individual case.

4. The police interviewer is not bound to accept the first answer given.Questioning is not unfair merely because it is persistent.

5. Even when the right of silence is exercised by a suspect the policestill have a right to put questions.

6. When conducting an interview, police officers are free to askquestions in order to establish the truth; except for interviews withchild victims of sexual or violent abuse which are to be used incriminal proceedings, they are not constrained by the rules applied tolawyers in court.

7. Vulnerable people, whether victims, witnesses or suspects, must betreated with particular consideration at all times.

You cannot decide on an appropriate course of action or prosecuteoffences unless you are able to find out from other people whathappened!

A competency framework has been developed to provide a structurewithin Investigative Interviewing. The structure comprises 5 levels; 3levels for practitioners - interviewers, and 2 levels for supervisors/managers in relation to the management of interviews.



Tier 1 Foundation Interviewers in volume crime cases includingtheft, criminal damage and taking a vehiclewithout consent.

Tier 2 Investigator Interviewers in serious crime cases includingrobbery, aggravated burglary and seriescrime cases including deception.

Tier 3 Specialist Interviewers in major Interviewer crime casesincluding, murder/manslaughter, child sexual abuse,serious sexual assault, terrorism, fatal roadtraffic accidents and complex volume and seriouscrime cases.

Tier 4 Interview Supervisors quality Supervisor assuring interviewsat tiers 1,2 or 3

Tier 5 Interview Managers/advisors/co-ordinators of the interview Advisor/ functions at tier 3. Manager

The framework established by the five structured levels will ensure aconstant approach to training, development and the use of the PEACEmodel.

Your training at this level serves as an introduction to investigativeinterviewing.

In the lesson “Introduction to Investigation” you learnt about the firststep in this process. It dealt with investigation in immediate responsesituations where you would be delving into people’s memory of veryrecent events, often with very specific objectives and usually with quitelimiting time restrictions.

The aim of this lesson is to give you the foundation on which to buildthe skill of finding out from people all they know about an occurrence,usually some time after it, by working with their long term memory.(However, what you learn in this lesson should always be applied whentime and circumstances permit.)

This lesson will explain:-

* How Memory works

* Factors affecting Memory

* An effective method to recall or assist others to recall informationfrom their memory.



Objectives

After you have studied and understood this written lesson, you should beable to:-

1. Describe the brain’s “filing system” for storing information.

2. Describe three different types of memory.

3. Describe how memory can be affected by Implanting andAssumption.

4. State the time-scale in which the greatest detail of information ismost easily recalled from the memory, and the possible exception tothat rule.

5. Describe the reconstructive process of memory recall.

6. Give an example of how people’s ‘frame of reference’ can adverselyaffect the accuracy of the reconstructive process.

7. Explain how a number of recall attempts can improve the recallprocess.

8. Describe how re-instating the context of an experience affects thequality of the recall of it.

9. Explain what is meant by the term “uninterrupted account”.

10. Describe the value of “free recall” in the interview process.

11. Describe three effective “tools” to assist the interviewee's state ofconcentration.

12. Describe the probable effect of tension on a person’s concentration.

13. Describe question types that are most likely to produce completeand accurate information from a witness during interview.

14. State what is meant by the term ‘episode’.

15. State what is meant by the term ‘topic’.

When you have achieved the objectives listed above and after yourtrainer has provided suitable learning experiences, you should be able to:

1. Interview a witness without taking a statement.



Memory is not Total

Before you read any further, think back to what you did from getting upthis morning to arriving in your classroom.

You will probably find it impossible to recall every person or article thatyou must have seen. If you have a regular routine, the chances arethat you were on ‘auto pilot’ and can remember very little about whathappened.

This should demonstrate that memory is not like a video recorder thatrecords everything. In fact, memory is more like a pocket book in whichyou jot down references that will help you to write up a full report later.

When you come to write your full report, you will fill in the gaps. To dothis you will rely on your knowledge.

However, you will also be influenced by your prejudices, opinions, socialand cultural background, expectations and even later experiences orconversations. Your final report, whilst being truthful, may not beabsolutely factual.

Sounds

Movement

Words

Feelings

Environment

Images

Actions

EmotionsSensations



Memory is Organised

To understand this particular point, look at the list you made about whatyou did from the time you woke up this morning to the time you arrivedin your classroom..

If you were to look at a classmate's list, the chances are that both of youwill have produced something similar to the following:

Got out of bedWent to the toiletHad wash/bath/showerShaved/dried hairDressedChose BreakfastHad breakfastTidied up dishesSaid GoodbyesTravelled to HendonArrived in Classroom

Most people in the training school would produce a similar list. Couldanyone looking at the lists of two people easily tell that they referred totwo different people on two separate days? Probably not.

Memory is organised to assist us to remember. One theory suggeststhat we organise knowledge in a similar way to a filing system.

Whilst completing the list, your recall worked like a clerk. It went to thefiling cabinet marked ‘daily routine’ and opened the drawer marked‘getting up!’ Inside it found a number of labelled folders. You havewritten down the labels as your list.



However, if you want to look further and view what was inside eachfolder you may find a store of detailed information ready to be recalled.

The way memory is organised can have a powerful influence on what isremembered. When you experience a situation, you file the details inyour memory. If the experience is repeated, new information may beadded. Your memory is reinforced. Regularly repeating theexperience influences your memory to the point that you respondwithout thinking about it. It becomes routine. This may even occurdespite the fact that you have subsequently undergone a contradictoryexperience.

The following example may demonstrate this;

Officers working at a police station were informed that theproperty office on the first floor was to be moved to theground floor for a period of two weeks during redecoration.Despite that knowledge, many of the officers continued to visitthe first floor office only to be reminded, on seeing the noticeon the door, that the office had temporarily moved.

They had established the normal location of the office throughcontinued use. When they wanted to see the property officer,the more recent information about the ground floor office hadnot been etched into their memory routine.

We organise the way we store information.

In a first attempt to remember an incident or specifics, we are likely torecall broad outlines but little detail. Just like your list.

Because of the way we organise the information stored, we may add ormiss unexpected detail in a first attempt to remember what hashappened.

Memory is Processed Through Stages

Another theory suggests that there are three types of memory i.e.,

1) Short Term,

2) Working and

3) Long Term memory.

For the purpose of understanding what witnesses may be able to recall,your interest is in their long term memory. However, a brief word aboutthe other two may help you to understand how things can appear to gowrong with memory.



Do you remember how you were unable to recall all articles and peopleyou saw this morning? The reason for this is that your short term andworking memory were allowed to function safely, leaving your brain freeto think about other matters.

However, there were some things that you did remember about yourjourney to work. It appears, then, that the ‘executive’ decided thatsome of the information from your senses was important and should beremembered.

1) Short Term memory

- Information is processed by short term memory which lasts forless than a second. It is then used by the working memory tointerpret what our senses are telling us so we can use theinformation to function effectively.

To read this sentence, your eye is sending messages to your brain.You can understand the sentence, because your brain is storing up thewords until a string of words is understood. If we could only everremember the last word, we would never make sense of anything weread or hear.

2) Working memory

- is that part of the process which allows us to understand whatthe brain is being told by the senses. It draws on knowledgestored in long term memory. Contained within workingmemory is an ‘executive’ or “Controller”. It decides whether ornot information should be stored in long term memory, to beavailable for future recall.

Executive

Short Term Memory

Long Term Memory

Working Memory



When the “executive” decides that the brain should remembersomething, the information is encoded and then stored in long termmemory.

If we try to remember or recall that information, we search the storefor it.

When using short term and working memory to make sense of what weare reading, we draw on learnt knowledge.

Consider the phrase, “Las llaves estan en la mesa.” Unless you haveknowledge of Spanish, it is highly unlikely that you can make sense ofit, although you recognise it consists of words and realise it is alanguage which must have meaning.

A witness who states,

“I saw a man in a blue jacket get out of the car”,

is using knowledge previously gained to explain what was seen (i.e. itwas a man not a dog, a blue jacket not a red jumper, and a car andnot some other type of transport). In comparison, young children orpeople with learning difficulties may have a limited ability to describedetailed information about such an incident.

Executive

Short Term Memory

Long Term Memory

Working Memory

Encode Newspaper Article



3) Long Term Memory

Encoding

When your ‘executive’ decides to store something it simultaneouslyencodes many factors. When you witness an accident, what you see ofthe collision will be stored. This includes not only the impact, but awhole range if information, such as the location, lighting, weatherconditions, movement of the vehicles, actions of people, sounds of thecrash, screech of tyres, words spoken and the smell of petrol or burningrubber.

You are also likely to store your reactions and emotions. Similarly,details of colours, shapes and textures may also be encoded and sent tothe brain for storage.

Colours

Lighting

Weather

Sounds

Smell

Other People Present

Behaviour of PeopleMovement

of Vehicles

Words Spoken

Working Memory

Long Term Memory

Executive



Storage

The encoded information is not retained in one place, but is storedthroughout the brain.

Recall

The information which has been stored can only be recalled in detail byaddressing each of the encoding paths. Asking the witness toremember the sounds of the incident will strengthen that encoding pathbut it may also enable the witness to remember other areas as well.

Many police officers invariably expect witnesses to recall informationobtained through all their senses in one recall attempt.

However, it is impossible to remember everything at once.

Colours

Lighting

Weather

Sounds

Smell

Other People Present

Behaviour of PeopleMovement

of Vehicles

Words Spoken

Working Memory

Long Term Memory

Executive



Experience shows that the ability of witnesses to remember varies.There may be several reasons for this;

- some people are naturally better at remembering certain facts thanothers.

- the more attention that we pay to the ‘to be remembered’ event,the more detail we are likely to encode.

- rehearsal of detail is likely to strengthen the ‘memory’, making itharder to forget.

- on the other hand, a failure to refer to an event, over a prolongedperiod of time, may cause the memory relating to it to deteriorate.

Factors Affecting Memory

Assumption

This is where the Frame of Reference really has an effect on memorystorage.

Consider some of the contents of your Frame of Reference:-

upbringing attitudes

beliefs knowledge

values education

prejudice stereotypes

All of this can cause people to store in their memory as havinghappened, something they merely expected to happen. They assumethat it did happen.

Trying to remember an incident completely can be hard work. If yourecognise something about which you think you already haveinformation in the forefront of your mind (Frame of Reference), it isterribly tempting to be satisfied and stop digging further.

It would be so much easier to use your previous knowledge,stereotypes, prejudices, beliefs, etc., your assumptions, or expectations,of what actually happened to save the effort of going further?

Certainly, this would be easier. Indeed, it is as a commoncharacteristic of memory recall as it is of memory storage - but it isnot accurate.



Accurate memory recall relies upon the individual making the effort tosift to the very depths of his or her memory store for the information -not short-cutting the process.

Unfortunately, many people do shortcut the process. One of the skillsof good interviewing is that of preventing them from doing it!

During my research, I asked a friend what she had for lunchon the first full day of hostilities in the Gulf War. Her answerwas, “Nothing.”

I said, “You sound very sure of that. How are you able to beso certain?”

She said, “I remember clearly what I was doing on that day. Iwas running a training course and I never have lunch when I’mdoing that because I just don’t have the time.”

I asked her to recall some specific events of her day. She did,but displayed reluctance and impatience.

I turned on my masterly interpersonal and interviewing skills!The result? We discovered that she had a plate of sandwichesand a bowl of “exotic” fruit in her hotel room! Success!!

This was over a year after the event!

So you see, people are often reluctant and become irritated whenasked to make the effort to apply the reconstructive process effectively.They tend to try to avoid it by making assumptions which are of littleuse to the recall process because...

Assumption is the death of a good investigation!

Perception and Attitudes

Memory is affected by our perception and attitudes. An example of thiswould be a man who believes that most ‘muggers’ are black. The manwitnesses a handbag snatch and sees the back of a hooded personrunning off.

When questioned by the police he may confidently state his genuinebelief that he saw a black youth commit the offence. It is only bycareful listening and subsequent probing that you may establish that hecould not have known what colour the person was.



In this situation, the memory of the witness was affected by thatperception. It follows that confidence of a witness does not guaranteethe accuracy of what the witness says.

Implanting

This is when a person is present at an event and he or she stores intheir memory, as a fact, something they have been told (by a forcefulor confident person) even though he or she does not know it to be truefrom personal observation.

People are vulnerable to this when what they are told fits in with whatthey know from personal observation.

For example..

A man is present at an armed hold-up. He sees three maskedpeople carrying it out. One has short hair, the other twoappear to have long hair. The short-haired person, a man,sticks a gun in his face (imagine the effect on his Level ofAwareness and Focus of Attention).

He takes little notice of the other two.

Another witness tells Police who attend the scene that theother two robbers were women. One of the Officers says toour man, “Can you describe the two women who were with theman with the gun?”(a leading question)

Having paid little or no attention to the other two people, he assumesthat the Police know something that he doesn’t and stores in hismemory the fact that the robbery team consisted of one man and twowomen.

Even if this didn’t happen at the scene of the robbery, it is equally likelyto happen if another witness tells him that the other two were women orif the Officer taking his statement later asks such a leading question.

However, the first hand information that made that “hearsay” believablewill also be stored in his memory.

Forgetting

So far we have been considering how we remember and recallinformation. However, we all forget things. There are many reasons forthis.



Possibly the most common reason for not being able to recall something,is that we never ‘encoded’ the information in the first place.

Another reason is, that during encoding and storage, the system brokedown. The various retrieval paths may become temporarily orpermanently blocked.

Time Since the Event

Your own experience will probably tell you that memory fades over timeand people are usually able to give the most complete account of anexperience immediately after it.

The greatest loss of detail occurs during the period soon after anexperience and then significantly slows down.

More detail will fade in the first 24 hours than will between thenand three days later.

This is probably because that which is important enough to remainhighlighted for 24 hours is less likely to be relegated to the minorheadings in the depths of a file.

Therefore, it is important to interview witnesses as soon as possibleafter the event.

A possible exception to this rule is when the witness has been subjectedto severe stress or trauma.

Blocks

Stress and trauma can often cause the temporary blocking of ourretrieval paths.

Witnesses who have undergone a stressful experience will often need tobe interviewed as soon after a crime as any other witness, for example,to capture escaping suspects. However, the detail of the informationthat they are able to recall so soon after the experience may be“blocked” by the state of trauma they are in.

Imagine how a Sub Postmaster would feel after being the victim of anarmed hold-up. You arrive on the scene just after the robbers havemade off on foot and ask him to describe them as accurately andcompletely as possible. What image is his mind likely to be filled with atthis time?



Does this suggest anything to you about the time that you are likely toconduct the most complete and accurate interview with this witness?

As the stress level subsides, the range of detail that he is able to recallwill increase. It usually takes about 24 hours for this process to becompleted unaided.

So, as a general rule, whenever stressed witnesses have beeninterviewed, they should be interviewed again after the “stress block” hashad time to subside.

However, the attention is still likely to be focused on the cause of thestress. Other information about what went on before and after the eventis still in their long term memory store but it is deeper in the system.

How you can assist Retrieval.

Obtain an Uninterrupted Account

Have you ever had the experience of being interrupted whilst in full flowand then not being able to remember what you were talking about?Consider the following situation.

Interrupting your flow can cause you to forget what you were about tosay.

Research in America revealed that, on average, a police officer interruptsa witness within 7.5 seconds each time the witness speaks.

If you want witnesses to remember, ask them an open question aboutwhat happened and let them tell you their answer. Do not interrupt.

When they pause because they are trying to remember, do not interruptor try to help them by guessing at what they might say. Give them time.They will not be consciously aware of what, to you, might be an‘awkward’ silence.

The initial account you are told is called the uninterupted account.



Setting The Scene

(Re-instating the Context)

One way you can help yourself and others to recall, is to recreate, asnear as possible, the same conditions which existed when theinformation was stored. You should aim to place the person back in theContext of the experience.

Care should be taken when doing this as the emotions that are re-visited may be strong. Part of your preparation for an interview with awitness should include an assessment of the interviewees emotionalstate. As a result of this, it may be felt that trying to put that personback into the event may not be helpful for that individual, or assist inthe retrieval of information.

Go back to when you woke up this morning. Now mentally put yourselfback into bed. How were you feeling? If you were feeling fed up, thenfeel fed up now. If you were cold, feel cold now. Concentrate on goingback and recreate the exact conditions that existed then. This isreferred to as ‘re-instating the context’.

Next concentrate on getting a clear mental picture of what you aredoing.

You have produced an uninterrupted account which is the result of freerecall. Free recall produces information that is invariably accurate.Information obtained by questioning may be more complete, but isgenerally less accurate.

The more attempts you have at recall, the more you will remember. Asinterviewers we need to ensure that we increase the amount of accurate‘freely recalled’ information, and minimise the need for questions.

Episodes

When you have obtained an uninterrupted account from an interviewee,you should provide them with the opportunity to repeat their recall bysplitting up the account into a series of shorter, more manageable, timeframes (called episodes).

Now consider what you did between waking up and getting into the bathor shower (first episode).



Splitting recall into episodes not only produces more information, butmay help you to identify inaccuracies in the uninterrupted account.

Focusing recall upon a topic within an account or episode also helpsyou to remember new information.

Consider also the effect that 'working hard' and 'telling everything' hadupon your ability to recall.

Concentration

You will probably have come to the conclusion that, to achieve full andaccurate recall, witnesses have to work very hard to maintain anappropriate level of cencentration.

Most people expect the interviewer to do most of the work by askingthem lots of questions. They may be surprised by , and reluctant tomake, the effort that you require of them. (How many times in theexercises in this lesson did you say to yourself, "Oh I can't remember",and then give up, or make only a token effort?)

Whilst researching this lesson, I put what I have written to the test on amixture of friends, students and strangers. They all began in a spirit ofco-operation, until I started getting their minds to do the work! I've lostcount of the number of times I heard, "I can't remember" from peoplewho eventually came up with the information which they were asked torecall.

You should not be surprised by such resistance, even from the most co-operative witness. Empathy, encouragement and reward, constantlyapplied, are effective tools to overcome it.

Add to that what you can remember doing between having the bath orshower and sitting down for breakfast (second episode).

Topics

Sometimes, for the purposes of an investigation, we need specificinformation about an issue or object, rather than a sequence of events.For example, a description or murder weapon.Lets reconsider the example above, particularly the second episode -what you could remember between having your bath or shower andsitting down for breakfast.

Now assume that the bar of soap you used in the bath/shower is ofsignificance to the investigation. It will now become an important ‘topic’of your account and the enquiry. Every detail you can remember aboutthe soap may be useful to the investigation.



Relaxation

Tension during the recall process tends to hinder concentration.

Think back to a time when you were telling someone about something andyou were unable to remember the name of a character in your tale. It wason the tip of your tongue but it just wouldn't come out!

'You know who I mean 'Wotsisname'. You know, he always had worsespots than anyone else in the class."

"Oh, what's his name. You know, come on you must remember his name.This is driving me mad!"

The harder you tried, the more the name seemed to slip away.

You probably became more and more exasperated, then gave up andcontinued concentrating on the whole story, you relaxed again.

When you were at a point in then story when you weren't aware ofthinking of this elusive person, suddenly, "Lance Boyle. That's his name!"

The more people concentrate, the more extensive their recall will be.However, if the concentration causes them to become too intense, theirability to recall could be reduced.

So the most effective frame of mind to aid recall is relaxed.

To conclude this section on retrieval you should now appreciate thefollowing facts:-

• Working hard and telling all, without editing anything out, increasesthe amount of information you recall;

• The more attempts you make to recall the more you remember;

• Re-instating the context of the encoding of the 'to be remembered 'information assists your recall



Witnesses to Major or Mass Fatality Incidents

First Aid must be considered when dealing with a victim or witness of anycrime, before getting into investigation and evidence gathering questions.

But what if we are dealing with a major incident that has killed many peopleand left hundreds injured? At the scene of a terrorist attack or a train crashit could be depending on the situation difficult to tell who is a victim and whois a witness. Some victims may not have any immediately apparent injuriesbut could be in deep shock and traumatised. Our role as soon as we havethe incident under control is to investigate what happened and gatherevidence, with the help of victims and witnesses.

Victims and witnesses who are already traumatised can have their traumamade worse by the actions of well meaning officers at the scene, who aretrying their best to do a lot of things at once. The following example willexplain this.

You attend the scene of an incident that has a large number of casualties,such as a train crash or an explosion. A Sergeant tells you to cordon thestreet and clear it of people. You remain calm and clearly shout “PLEASEGET BACK! EVERYBODY MOVE BACK!” and hold your arms out to directpeople to safety. You see a man sitting on the pavement who appears to beignoring you, but it could be he’s so shocked he cannot even stand up. Hemay however, be able to give evidence, after getting the right help.

The overriding principle for first responders is that all victims and witnessesobviously injured or traumatised must be seen by the ambulance service,NHS casualty team, registered medical practioner or FME before a formalinterview takes place.

However, staff should use common sense in determining such priorities andproviding the victim / witness consents and they are capable to do so,officers may ask basic questions to ascertain what the witness has seen orheard. A formal written statement should not be taken at that time.

Witnessing or participating in an incident outside of their normal activityrange can traumatise people. This is particularly common where injury ordeath is a factor. Some common signs are crying, shaking, feeling cold,nausea, rapid speech or inability to talk coherently. Symptoms however,are not always visible and can affect people in different ways. As such it isnot reasonable to expect first responders to always recognise who may ormay not be clinically traumatised. Good witness care however will go a longway to reducing the level of visible and non-visible trauma and certainlywon’t make it worse.



Witness First Account

This section is particularly important as it is the part most played by frontline officers – you.

ANY officer can question ANY witness (including child, vulnerable orsignificant witnesses) to establish who they are, next of kin details, how theywere involved in the incident, obtain urgent information particularly aroundsuspect details, descriptions, method of escape, or ascertain whether thereare and the location of other casualties etc.

When dealing with Child, Vulnerable or Significant witnesses, officersmust stop when that information has been obtained.

With the exception of Child, vulnerable or significant witnesses and subjectto the comments below, a statement can, but need not be taken at that time.You must seek direction from a supervising officer.

In all cases, where a statement is not taken, full contact details and a recordof what was said MUST be made.

Care of the witness

In the initial phase of an incident all officers should consider, in all cases,whether any victim or witness should be medically examined. In cases ofdoubt seek medical advice.

The primary aim is to ensure victims and witnesses are fit to be interviewed.Person visibly injured or traumatised must always be seen pre interview byan FME. Any victim or witness whose physical or mental conditionsignificantly deteriorates during an interview must be seen by the FME.

Consideration must be given to the immediate needs of the victim or witnessparticularly with regard to age, gender, ethnicity, cultural background or, ifknown, sexual orientation. A nearby venue to may be used to gatherwitnesses.

The Media

The media will seek access to witnesses but this should be prevented ifpossible. Where unauthorised access is gained members of the pressshould be asked to leave and referred to Press Bureau.



However, we cannot prevent witnesses talking to the media directly or viamobile phones although such action should be discouraged with a clearexplanation as to the possible risks to the investigation or subsequent trial.A police press officer should be asked to attend and deal with mediaenquiries if it is appropriate to do so.

Officers need to be aware of the fact that some media representatives maythemselves be victims or witnesses and may use the opportunity to reportfrom within the holding area. Where this is likely or does take place arobust explanation of the fact that such action may influence their own orother witness testimony should be given.

Witness evidence can and is influenced by what is broadcast so that by thetime a formal interview takes place, what a victim saw on TV may become afact of what they think they saw or heard at the time. It is important thatall televisions and other media sources reporting LIVE on the incident,are turned off

Finally one last thing to bear in mind.

SUSPECTS

There may be among the victims and witnesses a suspect. You must nottake any action that will place yourself, the public or the suspect at risk.Direction should be sought immediately from a supervisor.



e.g. "How were youfeeling?”

"What were youthinking about?"

"What other noiseswere you aware of?"

Setting The Scene(Re-instate the Context)

Initial open question

e.g. "Tell me about therobbery"

Uninterrupted Account

[Allow Free Recall No interruptions]

2nd

Episode Episode Episode Topic 11 2 3

First sightof suspects

Enteredbank

Leftbank

Lostsight ofsuspects

1stRecall

Descriptionsof suspects

"I first saw the blokes..........................and then Iostsight of them"

Summary

In order to gain more detailed information from an uninterrupted accountyou should do two things:

• Split the account into 'episodes and/or topics'

• Tell the interviewee to recall their account again by guiding themthrough the episodes and/or topics you have selected. You shouldexplore each episode fully before moving onto the next.

The graphic below demonstrates this more fully.



Lesson Summary

The main points of this section are outlined below:

Theories

• Memory is not total - a person cannot remember anything;

• A statement about past events may be truthful but not alwaysfactual;

• Memory is selective;

• Memory is reconstructed;

• We organise the way we store information;

• It is impossible to remember everything at once;

• Memory may deteriorate;

• Memory may be affected by our perceptions and attitudes;

• Memory may be affected by trauma.

Retrieval

• Don't interrupt;

• The first attempt at recall, the uninterrputed account, reveals broadoutlines but little detail;

• People may add or miss detail in their uninterrupted account;

• Retrieval is aided by assisting the person tore-instate the context;

• Allow the person free recall;

• Splitting recall into episodes and focusing on topics, buildsaccuracy and detail;

• The way people remember varies;

• Confidence does not guarantee the accuracy of what the witnesssays

End ofLesson

interviewing witnesses 1 the memory process · equally to the interviewing of witnesses, victims...

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