interviews
Do suspects have an interview plan?
Have you ever considered the most likely strategies a guilty subject may employ during the interview process?
Studies would indicate that once a guilty suspect is informed they are going to be, or are currently being interviewed regarding an incident, they have one of three plans of action.
First, they want to deny their involvement as early and often as possible. This allows them to stake themselves to a position and simply defend the position no matter what the interviewer says.
Second, they want to see as much of your evidence as possible. This allows them to learn exactly what you know and either deny as much, admit to as little, or explain away every bit of evidence.
Thankfully, the third is they did not have a plan.
WZ Europe once asked Britain’s number one fraudster, “At what point in the interview did you know you could get out of the situation?” His response, “As soon as I saw the evidence, I knew I would win. I wanted to see what they had on me.” We also asked him if he ever confessed to his crimes and why. His response, “I knew they had me and they were nice, so I thought what the hell.”
Remember to keep your subject’s possible plan of action in mind as you create your own interview plans. And always apply legal, moral, ethical and researched-based strategies to your plans.
