2019 HPRCT Conference

The vast majority of investigations involve interviews as a source of evidence. The problem with interviews is that, while information obtained through interviews is often the most useful we can uncover, it also tends to be the most unreliable, for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons include: (1) witnesses miss a lot; (2) witnesses forget; (3) memory changes over time; (4) the interviewer impacts the answers; (5) interviewers have their own biases; and (6) the interview record is an imperfect summary of the information exchanged during the interview. This breakout session will discuss the use of interview evidence once the interview is completed, including: (1) Evidentiary Standard; (2) Recognizing “Key Testimony” (3) Establishing Testimony Credibility (4) Establishing Witness Credibility (5) How to Recognize When You Have a Credibility Problem This breakout session will not discuss how to conduct interviews. While my personal focus lies primarily in Event Investigations/Causal Analysis, this breakout session may be of potential interest to anyone who is tasked with using information obtained from interviews.