Search

This chapter will examine how the cognitive interview (CI) has been applied into the real world of policing. We will consider the impact the CI has had on every-day policing, ranging from front-line communication, to being utilised within a visually recorded interview, which may replace live evidence in the court-room (depending on the legislative framework of the country it is being applied). As the CI is utilised in a multitude of different types of information and evidence gathering scenarios the way in which the CI needs to be applied, and thus trained should reflect the context within which it is to be used in the field. Accordingly, the UK has developed the ‘Tiered approach’ to interview training (Clarke & Milne, 2011), whereby interviewers learn interviewing skills (including the CI) incrementally, across a police investigator’s career span. This approach has been adopted in numerous countries and the chapter will explain the approach, outline a model of training to maximize transference of skills into the workplace, and the research base examining its effectiveness in the field.