Police practice and false confessions: A search for the implementation of investigative interviewing in Australia

Abstract

Since the 1960s, the United States developed ‘Reid interrogation technique’, and its variations have been widely used around the world. Due to its interrogative and confession-driven nature – and thus the increased risk of false confessions – many countries (including Australia) have since moved away from this model towards the UK-developed PEACE-approach. This article will utilise case studies and forensic psychological research to explain how coercive techniques used during police interviews increase the risk of false confessions. It will then describe the implementation of investigative interviewing in Australia by presenting an analysis of those state and territory police manuals which are publicly available.

Evidence-based policing in Australia: an examination of the appropriateness and transparency of lineup identification and investigative interviewing practices

“…One of the important reforms made was shifting the focus from interrogative questioning of suspects to investigative interviews with suspects (Adam and van Golde, 2020). Another important reform was the mandatory recording of suspect interviews.…”

“…However, unlike England and Wales (Clark and Milne, 2001), there was no uniform implementation of the PEACE model of investigative interviewing across all Australian jurisdictions (Adam and van Golde, 2020). Similar to lineup procedures, each jurisdiction had the responsibility to create policies and procedures for its own police forces.…”

“…In 2020, a review was published on implementation of the PEACE model and investigative interviewing in Australian police forces based on publicly available information (Adam and van Golde, 2020). The review was based on five states’ publicly available police manuals and/or documents (NSW, Qld, Tas, Vic and WA).…”

“…In addition to the reference to investigative interviewing in police manuals and other publicly available documentation, studies assessing police attitudes toward the use of investigative interviewing in a number of jurisdictions indicated an implementation of investigative interviewing in Australia (Adam and van Golde, 2020). These studies conducted with police officers in Qld (Hill and Moston, 2011), SA (Alison and Howard, 2005), Tas (Howes, 2020) and WA (Scott et al, 2015) indicated that investigative interviewing has been introduced and potentially implemented in these jurisdictions.…”

“…The review focused only on publicly available documentation for two reasons. First, the review closely followed the methodology of another recent Australian review study (Adam and van Golde, 2020). Second, we chose to focus only on publicly available information to determine the transparency of policing practice in regard to how evidence from witnesses, victims, and suspects is collected.…”