# Real police interrogation. How to write crime fiction.



## wainscottbl (Mar 11, 2016)

_Law and Order_ is a horrible example of how it works. Ever watch "The First 48?" Yeah. Here is the interview of Jody Arias. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc96tHCPt4M

And a serial killer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRb0TJQdHoE

Notice his body language and how he speaks, crime writers. It's the body language of a psychopath if you have seen enough videos of serial killer interviews. Think of it and put it in your writing. Of course I suppose a little embellishment is necessary to hold readers, but _Law and Order_ is a horrible depiction. I might write:



> Israel Keyes sat casually in his chair. The look on his face said that he was pleased to be there, even though he wanted to go free. He spoke to the cops easily, not quite as friends, but patronizingly almost, and with self-aggrandizing amusement. His body language boasted of his crime, but _hubris _convinced him that he would go free. "I did this," he said to them by his smiling and and slouching, but aloud, "I did not." He did not even ask for a lawyer, he was so convinced of his ability to go free.



A collection of serial killer interviews

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2bOMIFJelA


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## Sleepwriter (Mar 11, 2016)

I could have used this before, but will refer to this thread on another idea I have.


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## wainscottbl (Mar 13, 2016)

Sleepwriter said:


> I could have used this before, but will refer to this thread on another idea I have.



I don't write crime fiction generally, but I do have such scenes in my novel--one with a serial killer as a side plot to support the main one, and another with a serial rapist who is the villain. What I think I did wrong in the one with the serial killer is the court scenes. The killer was not on trial, but well...same principle. One lawyer did tell me about this that one must spice up court scenes, but I prefer to be conservative. Interrogation scenes cannot be like on Law and Order because that is witness intimidation and that makes the whole confession null, and thus a poor case, or not as strong of a case. Of course there are bad, unjust interrogations. Look up how the West Memphis Three cops interrogated a boarderline retarded young man from dawn to dusk, with leading questions and got him to say that the ring leader (the supposed ring leader) bashed in the kids' brains and so forth. The West Memphis Three were short of exonorated (they made an Alfred Plea). Granted this was like thirty years ago the interrogation and murder. Things have gotten tighter now thanks to stricter laws on these things, but of course there is still jerk cops who want a confession no matter what. But it's not the norm. If Stabler were a real cop, he would be off the force, in jail even maybe, but very likely sued, etc. He acts like that all the time--"you're going to be raped in prison. You like little boys, so they're going to rape you". Yeah, good luck with that tactic. 

I did, however,  and am happy with, a gay detective who is interrogating, but not officially, a character he knows is the killer. It's not in the interrogation room, but whenever they meet. The guy hates gays, so the detective his homosexuality, making his voice more effeminate, etc, talking about how the Supreme Court is going to make gay marriage universally legal (before the present), and the whole nine yards. A sort of Colombo. However, the character is not effeminate. He actually hates those types of gays. I talked to my gay friend about this in the LGBT crowd. He says there is a name for gay men who do not like effeminate gays. But this gay character, who hates those types, uses affectation and so forth. I got the idea from Crime and Punishment, as depicted here:

[video=youtube;ohD-WUrMsjE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohD-WUrMsjE[/video]


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## ironpony (Mar 14, 2016)

The interrogation scenes in Breaking Bad are good, particularly the ones in the Face Off episode, and the Buried episode.  The cops try to be very nice to the suspect, trying to make the suspect more comfortable about opening up, which is unusual, cause typically in these scenes, the cops are quite aggressive, but in reality, aggression can cause a person to close off sometimes, and making them nice and comfortable is a better approach, or so I was told.


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## The Green Shield (Mar 14, 2016)

Just out of curiosity, if a police officer/interrogator suddenly loses his cool and acts rough to the suspect (anywhere from shaking him up to flat out decking him across the face), there's a write-up for disciplinary action, correct? I'm asking this because in the usual police procedural shows, the officer/interrogator will on occasions decide to go berserk on the suspect yet nothing worst outside pulling the guy off and giving him a nasty glare. One such show actually had the interrogator lunge for the suspect and _throttle_ him, yet all he got was a stern "You need to control your temper."


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## aurora borealis (Mar 15, 2016)

Yes, I think so. It would depend on the severity of the actions on the part of the officer, and how much the suspect was injured by their actions (if at all). I think something like a police officer appearing to try to coerce anyone into confessing something would be jumped on by a defense lawyer during trial anyways. Heck, Canadian police have disciplinary (or more... rehabilitative - which isn't the right word but it's close enough) actions they take if an officer points their firearm at someone more than x numbers of times in a year. 

Police and investigators have to keep in mind a suspect's rights (as I'm Canadian I'm going to focus on our Charter of Rights and Freedoms). Something like roughing up a suspect could be used as "cruel and unusual punishment" or coerced confession by a defense lawyer to get a charge thrown out in court. There have been cases where a police officer has failed to let someone know the charges within 5 minutes of being cuffed and said charge was thrown out.


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## ironpony (Mar 19, 2016)

If you want to set the story in realistic modern times though, all interrogations nowadays are taped.  If a cop tries to bring in a confession under interrogation from a suspect, and the interrogation was not taped, I don't think the confession can be used in court, cause not taping it, is huge grounds of misconduct by not taping it, isn't it?

If a cop said he didn't tape it, this would go bad in court right there, wouldn't it?\

There was a movie I saw a few years ago, The Chaser (2008), where the cops are going to beat a confession out of someone and they turn the camera off.  But they knew that it could not be used as proper evidence, I think.  They just wanted the confession, cause it will lead them to the evidence they could use, and they would not count on the confession itself, I don't think.

However, in that movie they also got the suspect to right down what happened.  Does this happen a lot in real life, or do the suspects have to talk for the camera?  Cause after he wrote it down the cops were not satisfied, and they changed his statements on paper to make him look more guilty.


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## bazz cargo (Mar 19, 2016)

Hollywood has certain conventions  that bear no relation to reality. For the sake of drama and familiarity with those conventions I would forget about 'real policing' and go with the flow. 
On the other hand it is your story. 
Good luck
BC


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## Xander416 (Mar 20, 2016)

The Green Shield said:


> Just out of curiosity, if a police  officer/interrogator suddenly loses his cool and acts rough to the  suspect (anywhere from shaking him up to flat out decking him across the  face), there's a write-up for disciplinary action, correct? I'm asking  this because in the usual police procedural shows, the  officer/interrogator will on occasions decide to go berserk on the  suspect yet nothing worst outside pulling the guy off and giving him a  nasty glare. One such show actually had the interrogator lunge for the  suspect and _throttle_ him, yet all he got was a stern "You need to control your temper."


Yes, he very much would face disciplinary action, in addition to any information gained from the interrogation being thrown out.



ironpony said:


> If a cop said he didn't tape it, this would go bad in court right there, wouldn't it?\


I'm not an expert, but it might constitute entrapment. _Might_. Like I said, not an expert. My crime stories tend to focus on the other side of the law where "interrogations" usually end with the subject floating face down in a river. :lone:


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## wainscottbl (Mar 21, 2016)

I think I may have gone too far. Police can get aggressive. Sometimes justly so, sometimes not. I think it is important to be realistic in the matter, but they can get so. Police brutality on the street shows it. But sometimes cops shooting or using violence is justified likewise.


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