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Teach 'Em To Talk

NCJ Number
118563
Journal
Policing Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1989) Pages: 33-45
Author(s)
E Shepherd; F Kite
Date Published
1989
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This second of a two-part article on police interview and interrogation in the United Kingdom discusses the principles underlying training, training content, and training methods.
Abstract
The article first lists the skills required in police interviewing followed by the aims of interviewing training. The training aims are increased awareness (officers learn more about themselves, their impact on others, and others' impact on them), the development of more choices in handling relationships, experimentation in trying out some of these new choices, and decisionmaking about what is effective. The article proposes that police interviewing training be based in the conversation management philosophy developed by Phillips and Fraser (1982), in which approaches to interpersonal skills training are based in thinking, doing, and feeling. These three approaches are synthesized in a composite learning process which develops skills and awareness. Such training occurs within three contexts: centralized courses, "distance" learning within subdivisions/departments (self-teaching through videos), and on-the-job learning within subdivisions/departments. This article offers detailed recommendations for the conduct of interviewing training in each of these contexts. 31 references.