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Using interpersonal skills is an important part of humane and effective investigative interviewing for police. Training police in these skills varies in its contents and amount between countries and police forces. This review explores how interpersonal skills are defined and assessed in the context of interview training for police. A systematic evaluation resulted in 26 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. The most trained interpersonal skills were rapport (n = 18 studies), and active listening (n = 2 studies). Studies also evaluated training environments (n = 3 studies), and adherence to or knowledge of specific interviewing protocols (e.g. PEACE, n = 1; Whole Story framework, n = 1, procedural justice, n = 1). The reported effects of training vary with half of the included studies (n = 13) reporting positive effects while the other half (n = 13) reported limited or no effects. We discuss how conceptual definitions and study designs affect assessment of training outcomes. Aspects of training assessments (e.g. use of mock-interviews, self-reports, and lack of long-term follow-ups in the field) are discussed. We also discuss the need for more systematic research on training interpersonal skills for interviewing. Our findings should guide and inform further research on the topic.

Swedish police are implementing a new model for investigative interviewing. Previous research has highlighted that investigative interviewing is difficult to operationalize and teach to recruits. This study aimed to understand what Swedish police teachers value as important interpersonal skills for investigative interviewing as well as what strategies and struggles these teachers face when teaching recruits. Interviews were conducted with six experienced interviewing teachers at Swedish police training programs. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The teachers described that taking the interviewee’s perspective and accepting responsibility to build rapport, as well as social and situational flexibility were important skills for interviewers to process. When describing their strategies and struggles in teaching, the teachers described the need to bridge theory and practice, train flexibility through diverse scenarios, adjust to students’ social maturity and ability to self-reflect, and work with limited resources. This study also highlights how interviewing teachers express a need for adequate time and resources to be able to help recruits develop the necessary skills for interviewing.

As Swedish law enforcement embraces interviewing techniques that rely on psychological concepts and interpersonal skills, the teaching of these main ideas needs to be a central part of police education. This presentation willdiscuss how concepts familiar in psychology are understood and taught within Swedish police education today. Usingmaterials from the Swedish police authority, teaching resources, and the scientific literature, this presentation aimsto show how police education is adopting psychological perspectives and how psychological research and educationcan benefit in training police. We will also present future studies to further develop and incorporate psychologicalperspectives in educating law enforcement.

A crucial part of the crime investigation process is the investigative interview. Each interview is aninstance of law enforcement and the public meeting to exchange information. Interviews thus carry a great deal of weight in both the investigation and public relations. Although the main goal of interviewing is often to get information related to an investigation, interviews are also an opportunity for law enforcement to offer support, give information, gain trust, and connect with individuals in the community. Previous research has found that a humane interviewing style that focuses on building trust, good communication, and remaining objective while listening to the otherperson’s account has advantages such as eliciting more detailed accounts and more truthfulinformation. This style of interviewing has also been shown to be strategically beneficial regardless ofif the interviewee is a suspect, witness, or victim. However, researchers are still debating how toimplement empathy and rapport-building behaviors in interviews. There is a great need for researchon how police officers acquire the core skills needed for good communication, building rapport, andestablishing trust during interviews. The aim of this project is to better understand how humane and empathetic interviewing is implemented in Swedish police education in order to achieve a larger emphasis on building and maintaining rapport, empathy, and emotion regulation. This project will use both quantitative and qualitative methods to approach the research questions. The goal is to help the police both in getting as much information as possible, as well as improve the experiences ofthe interview for both the police and the interviewee. Understanding and implementing a morehumane approach to interviewing could help individual officers de-escalate tense situations andnavigate their own stress responses, as well as help strengthen community trust in policing when interacting with interviewees.