Effective police communication: Best practices for strategic confrontation in interviews

• In Event: POLWG Panel 7. Police and Criminal Justice Evidence Gathering: Interview and Interrogation techniques

Abstract

Policing practices in communication have evolved recently with a push for more procedurally just, theory-driven, and empirically supported approaches. While prior research has demonstrated the importance of rapport and trust-building for developing cooperation in police-public interactions, it is clear that some form of strategic confrontation remains a common and necessary feature of police communication. However, little research has focused solely on strategic confrontation, that is, an approach that not only fosters cooperation but is also perceived positively by the public. We begin to fill this gap with two studies examining both officer and public perspectives of confrontation within the context of investigative interviews (e.g., evidence presentation, accusations of guilt). In Study 1, we explored qualitative perspectives of police investigators (n = 30) who have been trained in rapport-building interviewing strategies and those trained in more traditional accusatorial techniques. We found distinct types of approaches to confrontation, consistent with the officers’ training. Building on these findings, in Study 2, we created vignettes presented to a representative sample of community members (n = 246) in which we manipulated the context and the techniques (rapport vs. accusatory) used to confront. We asked our participants about their perceptions of the officer, likelihood of cooperation, tendency to resist, and willingness to provide information. Our findings support the use of a rapport-based model, showing that if officers confronted using a rapport-based approach, they were perceived more positively, and it yielded more cooperation, less resistance, and more information. Although specific to the field of interviews, our results provide a model to build upon for law enforcement communication more broadly as communicative confrontations are commonplace in a variety of police activities.

Authors

• Laure Brimbal, Texas State University

• Christian Meissner, Iowa State University

• Steven Kleinman, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)

• Shawn Hill, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA