Question 1

What is science-based interviewing?

Accepted Answer

Science-based interviewing uses interview and interrogation methods validated by peer-reviewed research—rapport-based questioning, the cognitive interview, and the Strategic Use of Evidence—to gather more accurate information while reducing the risk of false confessions and false case information. Field-validation testing of science-based interviewing methods has shown, in real police cases, that investigators gather more case-relevant information, garner more cooperation, and obtain more admissions and confessions. Legacy accusatory tactics do the opposite.

Question 2

Who is the Train-the-Trainer program for?

Accepted Answer

Law enforcement agencies that want to certify their own instructors to teach evidence-based interviewing backed by research across patrol, investigations, and supervisory roles, then sustain it agency-wide. It is an upgrade to information-gathering practices across your agency. Outdated legacy techniques can be detrimental to investigations; science-based interviewing is the evidence-based upgrade. Note: Many chiefs, sheriffs, POST personnel, and training directors are surprised at what is still in these legacy interviewing and interrogation training curricula.

Question 3

What's the format and how long is it?

Accepted Answer

A blended program: Starts off with four days of in-person, instructor-led certification, three live online follow-up sessions, and ongoing role-based (patrol, investigations, supervision) microlearning built for squads and roll call. The online platform reinforces new curriculum and research-backed communication skills through short lessons, real-time AI practice (during and post-class), and scenario-based exercises—helping personnel apply modern best communication practices while replacing outdated legacy and commonplace approaches that research no longer supports as effective information-gathering practices.

Question 4

Is the training actually evidence-based?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every method is grounded in peer-reviewed research, including work funded by the U.S. High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG), and is co-created by researchers and experienced practitioners. We provide citations and an extensive library of supporting resources for students who want to go beyond the classroom, examine the research for themselves, and better understand what the science says about more effective interview and interrogation practices.Our practitioner instructors have used these methods at a high level in real investigations and have helped implement science-based interviewing in a major-city law enforcement agency and spread the practice statewide. They remain active in the field, applying and refining these skills in real-world settings.Our research partners do more than study interviewing in a laboratory. They train law enforcement professionals, collaborate directly with agencies, and conduct field research with police departments to test how these methods perform in operational environments.The result is training that sits at the intersection of peer-reviewed science, field validation, and real-world investigative experience—not theory alone.

Question 5

Can we train patrol, investigators, and supervisors separately?

Accepted Answer

Yes—the micro-learning platform has role-based tracks for patrol, investigations, and supervisory personnel.

Question 6

How do we bring it to our agency?

Accepted Answer

Schedule a 30-minute call to see if we're a fit, or book an agency training & program discussion for your team.

Question 7

What will our instructors be able to teach after certification?

Accepted Answer

Certified instructors leave prepared to deliver a structured Science-Based Interviewing curriculum within their agency (POST instructors contact us), including interviewing fundamentals, effective questioning, memory, rapport and active listening, investigative planning, bias mitigation, trauma-informed interviewing, Cognitive Interviewing, and Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE). They also receive instructor resources designed to support consistent delivery and help translate the curriculum into patrol, investigative, supervisory, and specialized-unit applications. Most agencies teach a two- to three-day course post-training depending on their audience and training needs.

Question 8

Is this just an interview-and-interrogation class, or an agency-wide communication program?

Accepted Answer

It is designed to go well beyond the traditional interview room. At its core, the program focuses on how humans communicate more effectively—how we ask questions, listen, build rapport, exchange information, and make better decisions during high-stakes interactions. The same research-backed communication skills apply during patrol contacts, witness and victim interviews, suspect interviews, internal investigations, supervisory conversations, crisis situations, and other critical encounters.Just as importantly, the program helps agencies identify and remove outdated legacy practices (these are actually still taught!!) that can undermine rapport, contaminate information, reduce cooperation, create investigative risk, or conflict with sound and ethical information-gathering. The goal is not simply to replace one interviewing technique with another, but to establish a more effective, research-informed communication framework across assignments and ranks.

Question 9

Can the curriculum be customized to our law enforcement agency's policies and operational needs?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The underlying science and core principles remain consistent, while scenarios, examples, terminology, and implementation strategies can be tailored to your agency and their personnel assignments.We do caution against blending science-based interviewing with outdated legacy, accusatory, confession-driven methods. They operate from fundamentally different paradigms (we wrote about it for IACP's Police Chief Magazine Online). When agencies attempt to keep both systems in the same curriculum, they can reintroduce many of the very risks science-based interviewing is designed to reduce—including confirmation bias, information contamination, inaccurate case information, coercive dynamics, false case information, and false confessions.Science-based interviewing is built around the information-gathering paradigm, not single-goal accusation. The risk factors and pseudoscientific practices associated with older confession-driven approaches have been identified through decades of research and are intentionally removed or replaced with practices designed to improve the quality, quantity, and reliability of information.And if the concern is whether moving away from accusatory methods will reduce confessions, field-validation research points in the opposite direction. In serious violent-crime investigations—including homicide, sexual assault, and robbery—science-based interviewing has produced stronger confession outcomes while also generating more information and greater suspect cooperation.So customization is encouraged for your agency's needs, but preserving outdated accusatory components is not. Doing so can undermine the very information-gathering advantages the science-based model is designed to create. After all, more information is better than less information every single time.

Question 10

Why Train-the-Trainer instead of simply sending personnel to a class?

Accepted Answer

Because organizational change requires more than training a handful of individuals. A Train-the-Trainer model builds internal capacity. Your agency develops instructors who can teach, reinforce, coach, and sustain the better communication skills over time—allowing science-based interviewing to become part of the organization’s culture rather than something employees encounter once in a classroom.

Science-Based Interviewing & Interrogation — Train-the-Trainer

Related interview & interrogation training & resources

The Research Behind the Program

Frequently asked questions