Suspect Interviews: Interrogation practice from the perspective of police officers in Germany

While research on the state of various investigative interviewing procedures is abundant, the way how police actually conduct such interviews remains largely unclear - especially in Europe. As part of a European research project on suspect interviewing, 321 German police officers were surveyed about their beliefs and practices with regard to suspect interviewing. Officers were asked about situational aspects of the interviews as well as individual factors that could influence either the suspect's or the interviewer's demeanor. The results show that the majority (77,3 %) of the respondents do not record interrogations, although they endorse these practices. On average, suspects are interrogated 1-2 times, and the total duration of an interrogation is less than 1.5 hours. More than half of the suspects (54,6 %) exercise their right to remain silent. It was estimated that over half of the suspects (57,2 %) do not confess, and one-third of the respondents reported having experienced a false confession. Officers overestimated their ability to discern between truth and lies during interrogations. Furthermore, the results indicate that German police mainly uses information-gathering techniques, but also some confession-oriented ones. The findings are discussed in light of previous research and findings from other European countries and the initial US-based study.