Behavioral Analysis Interview

One of the most important challenges facing law enforcement investigators is the detection of truths and falsehoods in the statements of the people they interview in the course of an investigation. Witnesses and victims may have motives to lie about aspects of the situation for reasons that have nothing to do with hiding their guilt or protecting the guilty party, and these falsehoods early in an investigation can taint the picture that emerges from the body of evidence, or lead investigators off the trail of the guilty party in pursuit of a red herring. Eyewitness testimony is of questionable reliability because of the construction of memory and various cognitive biases; when active attempts at deception are added to the mix, the interview process becomes fraught with obstacles. Though there are a number of remedies to this, the most popular is the Reid technique, a system of investigative processes designed to make inconsistencies and the possible lies causing them more obvious and to elicit confessions from subjects. [Page 70]The key element of the Reid technique is the behavioral analysis interview (BAI), which is used not only with suspects, but also with witnesses, victims, and persons of interest to the case.

The BAI is a technique for interviewing witnesses, victims, and suspects in criminal investigations. It is designed to not only collect information, but also to help the interviewer ascertain the truthfulness of the interviewee. The Reid technique is the standard interviewing and interrogation method used by American law enforcement and in much of the rest of the world, but is criticized as too likely to elicit false confessions from suggestible interviewees. The Reid technique was developed by John E. Reid and Associates beginning in 1947, which also runs the Reid Institute to train investigators in the technique. The most recent revision of the Reid technique was published in the fourth edition of Criminal Interrogation and Confessions in 2001. Many of the basic precepts of the Reid technique are taught by other interrogation schools under other names. Even police departments and other law enforcement agencies that do not use the Reid technique are likely, especially in the United States, to use a technique heavily influenced by it. Most television shows portray a police force using similar techniques, albeit simplified and filtered through Hollywood tropes such as the “good cop/bad cop” interrogation.