Rape complaints: Police under fire. (Part 1): Reid Technique: Oklahoma: Four day officer training program shows controversial interrogation technique accused of causing numerous miscarriages of justice is moving ahead full blast on child abuse investigations..."Thirty officers from 21 agencies are in Enid this week for specialized training for interviews related to child abuse investigations. For the second time in as many years, Garfield County Child Advocacy Director Carole Wade obtained a Victims of Crime Act grant for the training from the Reid Institute. Instructor Mike Masokas will present a four-day course titled “Investigative Interviewing and Positive Persuasion for Child Abuse Investigations.”..."John E. Reid and Associates began developing interview and questioning techniques in 1947. The Reid Technique is the most widely used approach to question subjects in the world. The content of the technique's instructional material has continued to develop and change over the years."

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I have run far too many posts detailing cases in which the Reid Technique has been accused of leading to miscarriages of justice over the decades.  They showed how there were extremely serious risks entailed in using the method on juveniles. They showed how the company was even trying to teach its method inside high schools. More recently, Wicklander-Zulawski, the company which had partnered with Reid - severed its connections,  CEO Shane Sturman saying in a public statement that, "In future classes, WZ will only discuss the Reid Method in effort to highlight potential risks posed in obtaining a false confession, or to illustrate the major advantages of using the WZ Non-Confrontational Method.”..."..."With the availability of DNA evidence, and with efforts from organizations such as The Innocence Project, there has been a heightened awareness of the danger of improper use of interrogation tactics. Wrongful convictions, exonerations and false confessions have become a more global point of discussion, and justifiably so. Although the Reid Method can be a useful tool in obtaining a confession, cases have shown that the improper use of the method, combined with the intense emotional pressure put on the suspect, can lead to catastrophic results. The Reid Method has remained relatively unchanged since the 1970s, and it conflicts with the progressive nature of how people communicate today. The Reid Method does not reflect updates in our legal system and does not acknowledge the availability of scholarly work on the subject. “Because of the possible abuses inherent in the confrontational Reid style, we believe it is time to move away from the practices of the 1970s when it was developed,” Sturman concluded. “While the Reid Method has been successful in solving crimes over the years, there are serious pitfalls and significant risks associated with the incorrect application of the technique." Why would training in  Reid's often heavy handed techniques be sought out by police forces seeking instruction on child abuse investigations? The answer may well lie in the current criticism of police for failure pursue sexual abuse allegations - even in cases where there is little more than 'he says - she says,' - a test far below the 'reasonable prospect of conviction' test, which is used by most jurisdictions for non-sex related offences.  An officer is quoted in the story below  as saying "This is for the children." Yes, indeed it is. But it is still a criminal investigation, with obligations to the suspect to provide a fair, unbiased investigation, free of heavy-handed, dangerous investigative techniques and respectful of the presumption of innocence.

Read the Wicklander release at the link below:"Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates, Inc. (WZ), a world leader in interview and interrogation training services for federal government agencies, law enforcement organizations and corporations, announced today the company will no longer offer training in the controversial Reid Method. WZ has been licensed by John E. Reid and Associates, Inc., originator and developer of the Reid Method, and had included this direct, positive interrogation method in their standard public sector curriculum with WZ’s non-confrontational techniques for the last 33 years. WZ Certified Forensic Interviewer (CFI©) instructors have conducted training for more than 200,000 law enforcement officers worldwide since the founding of the firm in 1982. Going forward, WZ will standardize their core instruction on multiple techniques including the Participatory Method, Cognitive Interviewing, Fact-Finding and Selective Interviewing, as well as the popular WZ Non-Confrontational Method. A major city police department recently contracted with WZ to teach this exact combination of industry best practices in seminars for their new detectives. This customized course was designed to provide progressive, comprehensive training in multiple non-confrontational interviewing techniques with a focus on obtaining truthful information and admissions. It will now become WZ’s flagship seminar for law enforcement. “It’s human nature to deny and defend oneself. Confrontation is not an effective way of getting truthful information,” said WZ President and CEO Shane Sturman, CFI. “Rather than primarily seeking a confession, it’s an important goal for investigators to find the truth ethically through a respectful, non-confrontational approach.” Sturman added, “WZ has dedicated instructional blocks to educate detectives on the causes of false confessions and the risks of utilizing improper interrogation methods. In future classes, WZ will only discuss the Reid Method in effort to highlight potential risks posed in obtaining a false confession, or to illustrate the major advantages of using the WZ Non-Confrontational Method.” Approximately 29% of DNA exonerations in the US since 1989 have involved false confessions to the crime. A combination of factors could cause innocent persons to confess to a crime they did not commit. Academics have chronicled the commonalities among these cases and found the suspect is often mentally or intellectually challenged, interviewed without an attorney or parent, interrogated for over three hours, or told information about the crime by the investigators. In addition, the officers in these cases were often trained in the Reid Technique of Interview and Interrogation. Although one might argue that the officers misused their training in the Technique, many courts and law enforcement agencies are moving away from this confrontational approach to non-confrontational styles. With the availability of DNA evidence, and with efforts from organizations such as The Innocence Project, there has been a heightened awareness of the danger of improper use of interrogation tactics. Wrongful convictions, exonerations and false confessions have become a more global point of discussion, and justifiably so. Although the Reid Method can be a useful tool in obtaining a confession, cases have shown that the improper use of the method, combined with the intense emotional pressure put on the suspect, can lead to catastrophic results. The Reid Method has remained relatively unchanged since the 1970s, and it conflicts with the progressive nature of how people communicate today. The Reid Method does not reflect updates in our legal system and does not acknowledge the availability of scholarly work on the subject. “Because of the possible abuses inherent in the confrontational Reid style, we believe it is time to move away from the practices of the 1970s when it was developed,” Sturman concluded. “While the Reid Method has been successful in solving crimes over the years, there are serious pitfalls and significant risks associated with the incorrect application of the technique. WZ will remain a progressive, evolving organization dedicated to partnering with academics, attorneys, researchers, corporations, and law enforcement agencies around the world to ensure the tools we are teaching are ethical, moral and legally acceptable.""