The second step,theme development,is the step in
which the police present a hypothesis about the reason
for which the suspect committed the crime. This
theme minimizes the moral implications of the alleged
offense or allows a suspect to save face by having a
morally acceptable excuse for committing the crime.
While the Reid Technique states that in no situation is
an officer to state that punishment will be lessened by
admitting to guilt, in fact, quite often, the officer states
just that. If the suspect becomes emotional, the inter-
rogator displays an understanding and sympathetic
demeanor toward the suspect. If the suspect does not
become emotional and the interrogator does not detect
remorse about the offense, various other techniques
are used, such as attempting to catch the suspect in a
lie, playing one co-offender against another, or behav-
ing more confrontationally such as by stating that
there is no point in denying involvement in the crime
because all the evidence points toward guilt.
The third step,handling denials, involves inter-
rupting a suspect’s denials of guilt. The fourth step,
overcoming objections,involves rejecting a suspect’s
excuses or explanations. Once the guilty suspect feels
that objections are not getting him or her anywhere, he
or she becomes quiet and shows signs of withdrawal
from active participation. When the suspect becomes
withdrawn, the interrogator acts quickly so as to not
lose the psychological advantage. In the fifth step,
procurement and retention of the suspect’s attention,
the interrogator reduces physical and psychological
space between himself and the suspect to get the sus-
pect’s full attention. This prevents the suspect from
emotionally withdrawing or tuning out from the
remainder of the interrogation.
The sixth step, handling the suspect’s passive
mood,is a continuation of the fifth step. The police
continue to get into the theme of the crime, expressing
both sympathy and understanding of the suspect and
emphasizing the need for the suspect to tell the truth.
When encouraging the suspect to tell the truth, the
interrogator might emphasize “the sake of everyone
concerned,” “the stress on the victim’s family,” or
“decency and honor.”
The seventh step,presenting an alternative question,
takes place when the interrogator gives two possible
alternatives for why the crime was committed. Both
alternatives are incriminating but one is presented as
face-saving, more acceptable, or more morally blame-
less than the other. Although proponents of the ReidTechnique adamantly state that at no time should an
officer state that the morally acceptable option will be
less severely punished, many suspects believe that the
more morally justified explanation will indeed meet
with more lenient treatment.
The eighth step,having the suspect orally relate
various details of the offense,involves a one-on-one
interrogation with no other officers in the room. It is
for the purpose of getting the suspect to give a detailed
account of the crime that would establish legal guilt.
The ninth and final step,converting the oral statement
to a written statement,is done as quickly as possible
after the eighth step. Sometimes, the confession will
be videotaped, audiotaped, or recorded by a stenogra-
pher rather than written by the suspect or interrogator.Use of the Reid Technique
With Innocent Suspects
Although Fred Inbau and his coauthors stress that the
Reid Technique should not be used unless law enforce-
ment is certain the confession is being extracted from
a guilty subject, often, this technique or others like it
are used on innocent suspects. The police may erro-
neously believe that a suspect is guilty because of
faulty police work or bad evidence, or because a sus-
pect engages in suspicious behavior during the initial
interview. For example, there are many reasons why a
suspect may lie about details to the police even if he or
she is innocent. The suspect may have information that
he would like to remain hidden (e.g., drug use or an
extramarital affair). An innocent suspect may appear
overly nervous because of past experiences with law
enforcement or because of the intrinsically anxiety-
provoking situation of being accused of a crime.
Police interrogation tactics and techniques, partic-
ularly with highly suggestible and/or compliant sus-
pects, may produce false confessions. Also, the
interrogation tactics may produce statements from the
suspect that, although incriminating him or her in
some aspect of the crime, may also exaggerate the
actual involvement or criminality of the offense.
Unfortunately, very few jurisdictions require law
enforcement to record all interactions with the
suspect—from the first encounter following an
offense to the completion of a memorialized confes-
sion. Often, there are discrepancies in the accounting
of what transpired. The defendant has one version, but
the police have a different version.680 ———Reid Technique for InterrogationsR-Cutler (Encyc)-45463.qxd 11/18/2007 12:43 PM Page 680