NPR presents an interesting examination of the Reid technique, the mostly commonly used method of police question in the United States:
Created in the 1940s by former Chicago policeman John Reid, the method “is really considered the gold standard of interview and interrogation techniques,” [Douglas] Starr tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. With Reid’s “near monopoly” on interrogation training, Starr says, hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officials have been trained on the technique since the ’70s.
As part of his research, Starr took a training course in the Reid technique. “It has the appearance of being very scientific,” he says. But a growing number of scientists and legal scholars say this approach is based on outdated science and psychology — and can sometimes produce false confessions.
Read more here.
