RT Article
T1 Evaluation of a police training programme designed to enhance open-ended questions with adult witnesses
JF International journal of police science & management
VO 26
IS 3
SP 317
OP 329
A1 Zekiroski, Hamida
A1 Powell, Martine B
A1 Brubacher, Sonja P
A1 Curtis, Phil
A2 Powell, Martine B
A2 Brubacher, Sonja P
A2 Curtis, Phil
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1902306783
AB The current study evaluated a new training programme developed for generalist police who interview adults. It was designed to enhance officers’ use of open-ended questions with adult witnesses. The programme included all key training activities that had been used in successful earlier training evaluation studies related to the interviewing of child complainants of abuse. A total of 90 officers (recruits, n = 26; frontline, n = 37; and investigators, n = 27), completed the course over 6–12 weeks and their standardised mock interviews were analysed for open-ended question usage as well as auxiliary behaviours designed to support a narrative. Interviewer performance increased over time from baselines of 6–18% open-ended questions to 70–76% following the programme. Although there was a drop in performance at least 6 months after the training ceased (with no intervening follow-up sessions) (M = 9.02, SD = 3.07), performance was still significantly better than baseline, and the improvements in open-ended question usage were associated with improvement in broader interviewer behaviours known to enhance narrative detail such as the use of minimal encouragers. The practical implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.
K1 adult interviewing
K1 Questioning
K1 Police
K1 best-practice interviewing
K1 training evaluation
K1 Investigative interviewing
DO 10.1177/14613557241233857