Description
Course Overview:
A critical pillar of the investigative process is the interviewing of victims, witnesses,
sources, and potential suspects. Imagine the direct impact, both positive and negative
that the quality of the information gained and the interview and interrogation tactics used
can have on the prosecution of a case. The simple truth is that the courts have already
started focusing on the faulty and in some cases extremely dated methods and
techniques currently in use.
The plan of action for this course is to provide an updated foundation of productive as well
as ethical interview and interrogation techniques. Allowing new detectives, criminal
investigators, and first responders to develop their skills by “trial and error” is
unacceptable. The ultimate cost of legal liability and subsequent litigation is quickly
reaching an unsustainable level. Especially since the problem could be avoided by early
training in the current science of interview and interrogation.
Participants will get to work on:
• Understanding the “Interviewer’s Impact Principle”
• Using the “4 Elements of a Successful Interview” to gain 60%+ information.
• How to avoid the 3 fatal pitfalls that devastate an interview.
• The “Strategic Use of Evidence” Tactic.
• Decoding a subject’s “Purpose of Action”
• Recordation of Interviews and Interrogations: The Growing Trend
Instructor: Stan Walters
Stan B. Walters has spent nearly 4 decades studying and researching the science of interview and
interrogation. He is the author of Principles of Kinesic Interview and Interrogation, 2d, ed., The Truth About
Lying: How to Spot a Lie and Protect Yourself From Deception, and Practical Kinesic Interview and
Interrogation® Pocket Guide. Stan maintains a personal library of 1500+ videotaped interviews of inmates
in 36 prisons in 17 states and one foreign country and the US Military Detention Barracks at Ft.
Leavenworth.
Stan worked on a groundbreaking credibility research project conducted at John Jay College. The research
was in association with the US Naval War College, NYPD, and the Queens, Manhattan & Bronx District
Attorneys’ Offices. He has also served as an interviewing and interrogation subject matter expert for Johns
Hopkins University.
Stan has more than 50,000 hours on the platform as an instructor.
Stan has regularly appeared on major US network news, and on France Channel One and Australia Today.
He has been profiled twice on National Geographic and was the host and technical advisor on the National
Geographic special “The Science of Interrogation.”
