Several of my books have scenes where the investigator/detective has to interview or interrogate other characters. In my latest book, From the Dust, there are quite a few of these kinds of scenes. As a retired detective with the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, a question I am often asked by readers and some writers is: Do those scenes in your books play out like they do in real life?
I have tried to stay true to the reality of both interviewing and interrogating characters. It obviously helps that a lot of what falls onto the page is based on my experiences and the intensive training I received when I was on the job. I was sent to what were the latest classes on investigative interviewing and advanced interrogation techniques at the time. Those classes were certainly worth the time, but hypothetical scenarios are nothing compared to years spent actually interviewing victims and witnesses or being in “the box” or other debriefing settings with a suspect or defendant. It is one thing to attend classes for eight hours a day to learn about how to evaluate a subject’s verbal and non-verbal behavior (specifically suspects or defendants) and quite another to actually sit across from them in real life. The experience doesn’t always play out the way you think it will and, unlike fictional interview and interrogation scenes, it can sometimes take hours or even days. Sometimes not. There are, occasionally, those not-so-common situations where the interrogation is as quick as a subject’s bow of the head, followed by a quiet, “I did it” or some statement to that effect. One thing I have learned, though, which is something I now use in my writing, is how the little things matter- that sometimes they are not so little and can have a great impact. For instance, when interviewing a witness or a victim, but especially a victim, it is important to take copious notes. They will often, even subliminally so, feel comfortable seeing you do this and gradually open up more to you. The act of taking notes during an interview demonstrates to them that what they are saying is important enough for you to take the time to not just listen but also write it down. On the other hand, suspects and defendants become uncomfortable and may shut down when, after they say something, they see you stop to write down their response or take notes. They can start to think: What did I say? Should I have said that? Maybe I should just shut up. So, when you’re talking to a suspect whom you have reason to believe committed a terrible crime, or to a defendant who has already been arrested for committing a terrible crime, then your memory had damned well better be sharp. Fortunately, you don’t need a sharp memory to write a fictional procedural scene because you have already written about the circumstances leading up to it, so you can just look back. When I’m rereading one of my interview or interrogation scenes, I will sometimes catch a plot hole – something the subject had said earlier that the detective should have brought up again later and I can fix it. You don’t have that luxury during real life interviews and interrogations, though, the benefit of writing yourself out of a hole.
Honestly, I never really liked the word interrogation. It’s not the meaning that bothers me because it is completely accurate. It is simply the word itself, and how it must sound to the person being interrogated, whether they are a person of interest in a crime that has been committed or they are someone who has already been charged with a crime. I have always preferred to use less negatively charged terminology like I’d like to interview you; let’s have a conversation. Those phrases are not so uncomfortable or foreboding. Although, sometimes, depending on the person, leaving them with a feeling that something bad can happen can be a good thing. Learning that, though, first comes with knowing who you are talking to. That is why framing interviews and interrogations as friendly conversation was a better approach for me. In fiction, it can work out that way too. It’s all about communication and, like I said, just plain simple conversation and trying to develop a trusting relationship. Again, this is something that worked for me as a detective and now in my writing.
Something I used to do in real life as a detective, and now something I do while writing, is to act out the conversation in my head, posing questions I want to ask and getting the response I would give based on the hundreds of hours I was involved in interrogations and interviews. This was/is something that usually took place in bed after I turned the light off. It often keeps me up very late at night, especially when writing, because then I’d usually have to stop, turn on the light, and note the answer the fictional subject would give me, or I’d forget it by morning. For some reason, this compulsive behavior has helped me in both the real life interview scenarios and when writing them.
I mentioned earlier that some of these conversations do not always pan out the way you want them to. They can take a turn. Sometimes an awful turn that leads to the subject shutting down or lawyering up. That can also happen when I’m writing, so that is something that is very similar to real life. My characters can surprise the hell out of me. Sometimes I have to find my way out of a deep hole. I try not to delete the scene because I want it to feel authentic so, unfortunately, my dear protagonist has to find a way out just like I did when I was a detective in that same situation. Regrettably, sometimes they cannot. I both hated this and at the same time loved it because that meant the story had taken on a life of its own.
One thing I want to mention here that irks me to no end is when I’m reading a book or watching a television series or a movie, and the detective(s) have a suspect or defendant in the box and, during the course of the interview, the subject shuts down and lawyers up and the detective(s) either become more persistent or make promises that should never be made, like being able to get them a deal, or even flat out lie about something. In real life, even with a half-assed defense attorney, that subject would later walk. Then there’s ‘good cop, bad cop’. Sure, that can sometimes work. It has never worked for me in reality, though it has in my writing – as long as I don’t cross the line and have my characters break police procedure.
Interview and interrogation are simply conversation, but it is also an art, and I have been fortunate to have been able to experience both firsthand and now draw on my real-life experiences and education when writing fictional scenes. So many of those faces from which I sat across from are still with me. Some of those faces I don’t want to see anymore, but they are there for me when I need to go back to the feelings they gave me to use in my writing. I have never related any actual events from cases I’ve worked in my fictional interview and interrogation scenes. The mental and psychological experiences were more than enough for my fiction and I am thankful for both the good and not-so-good memories.
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