The lesson this week touched on a lot of different points, but the one that stood out to me was the interviewing tactics utilized by the police. The main tactic used throughout the United States, and most of North America, is called the Reid Technique (Gruman et al., 2017). Now you have seen this technique be used in all sorts of different capacities whether it be in real life or on television. Police have deemed this to be their most effective tactic, but is it morally correct?
In 1996, Kassin and Kiechel conducted a study to research the process of interviewing suspects that would later be known as the Reid Technique (Gruman et al., 2017). This tactic consists of aggressive interrogation tactics such as repeated accusations of certainty that the suspect is guilty, constant interruption of the suspect to not allow them to speak, recusing their denials, and continually stating that there is evidence against them to prove their guilt (Gruman et al., 2017). This technique has been widely criticized as it has been deemed to be coercive, which often leads to false confessions, and sometimes wrongful arrests or incarcerations.
In 1998, a man in Canada was brought in for questioning regarding the aggravated assault of his infant son (Manishen, 2017). The man was subjected to the Reid Technique, and was interrogated for hours. Regardless of his continued statements refuting any involvement in the heinous act, he was eventually arrested after signing a confession of guilt (Manishen, 2017). The police had utilized many facets of this technique to include referring that this man had been abused himself as a child which would have led to his unintentional assault of his son (Manishen, 2017). The judge in Canada presiding over his case decided that the use of the technique had produced a coerced confession and deemed all evidence as inadmissible (Manishen, 2017). So, this brings about the question of whether this technique is morally correct or violates the rights of so many that are subjected to it.
The Supreme Court of Canada has also made decisions in regard to this technique and its moral credibility. In 2016, the Court ruled in the case of R. v. Thaher, 2016 ONCJ 113, that the confession of a mentally ill man accused of attempted murder was coerced and the judge refused to accept it (Manishen, 2017). Another case, R. v. Oickle, 2000 SCC 38, [2000] 2 S. C. R. 3, described this technique as both coercive and as poor police work as the confessions that resulted were false (Manishen, 2017). The last case I will reference, R. v. Goro 2017 ONSC 1236, police had interrogated a man for over six hours and had never told him of his right to counsel, told him that he was free to leave at any time, and utilized the Reid Technique to use his statements against him to tie evidence to him (Manishen, 2017). Justice Dale Fitzpatrick, who oversaw this case, ruled that the Reid technique is inherently coercive, and this confession was also false due to the coercive nature in which it was obtained (Manishen, 2017).
We all have seen this technique be used in almost every crime-based television show as well. The show will show the interrogation and the police are using this very technique to gain either a confession of guilt or to obtain some form of an answer. Does that make it morally correct? After all, it’s just a television show that isn’t real, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen every day. The cases I provided showed exactly how easily police can use this technique, and how easily the case can be dismissed on the grounds of a false confession. This alone leads to the false convictions and incarcerations of many across the country. So, I ask you, is it morally correct to utilize this technique to interrogate a suspect?
Reference:
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 978-1-4833-6973-0
Manishen, Jeffrey. (2017, Dec 11). Reid technique is problematic. Law Times. Retrieved from https://www.lawtimesnews.com/archive/reid-technique-is-problematic/262844
I don’t believe the technique is morally correct nor beneficial in legally obtaining valid information from potential witnesses or victims. I say this because Gruman, Schneider, Coutts (2017) had pointed out that a better interviewing technique would be the cognitive interview. In one of the studies given in the book, the cognitive interview had resulted in about 47% additional information gathered while still being valid (Gruman, et al., p. 302, 2017).
Given this, I believe the Reid technique is a poor way to attempt to gather all relevant information pertaining to any crime if it is the truth they are seeking. They would have better luck using the cognitive interviews.
Reference
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2017). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.