The main character of “The Closer”, Brenda, is a professional interrogator. After she collects necessary evident, she knows who the murder is, and then she talks to the suspect, walks out the interview room with confession and closes this case. Compare to the “CSI”, “The Closer” puts more emphasis on interrogation. Except for physical evidence, confession in fact is an essential part in investigation. To the suspects, interrogation gives them a chance to explain why they are involved in this case. To the law executors, they can piece the truth together by combination of evidence and confession. “Innocent people can confess things they didn’t do.” Not all the confession is stable and so do the evidence. Unarguably, forensic evidence is powerful, but here “The Closer” reminds us that we ignore the confession easily.
As the video says, interrogation is an art. Good interrogators have to equip with several abilities, not only the required knowledge range widely, but the highly mental intelligence. However, these are just previous preparation. During the interrogation, they act all the time. They may pretend to be provoked by the suspects and lose their temper. Or they may show consideration to suspects but actually they feel disgusting. To sum up in a word, they must be very good at controlling their emotions. Be flexible, objective, and observant. Their mood should shift rapidly to cater to the situation. The performance is diverse, from being agitated and patience. Owing to suspects maybe defective and intelligent, lying, silence, uncooperative are possible. It takes interrogators a lot of time to deal with them. Before the truth is exposed, they are not allowed to view suspects as formal criminal and behave in that way during the interrogation. Interrogators beating suspexts it is out of the question. If the confession is due to violence, the court will not use it. The process is not that soon on TV. Finally, these rules are accompanied with careful observation then the interrogator can do a good job. Just like the well-known book, “What Every Body is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People”, when interrogators are ready, then observe suspects carefully to find out which part of conversation force them move their body. Nevertheless, careful observation is based on years of experience. That’s why it can be called an art. “It goes beyond anything that you can reduce to a formula put in a book and expect people mechanically to be able to follow. Human nature definitely is not so easy to know well.
Understanding the basic rule a good interrogator should follow, we may think about some questions. In Taiwan, it is hard to find a professional interrogator. Police officer may torture the suspect in both verbal and un-verbal ways. Suspects’ human rights are ignored, even though they are proved to be innocent, there must leave inestimable wounds. Such is the case in 蘇建和案, the way the police get confession from three suspects is extremely questionable. Begin at 1990, the suit has been lasted for almost 21 years, it hasn’t been settled until now. People related to the case are left with un-retrievable loss of time and energy. A proper interrogation wouldn’t bring such effect. “The Closer” shows us the basic rule of it, though it’s ultimate goal is entertainment, not all the scenes are real. It still tells us what a good interrogator should armed with, and what a legitimate interrogation can achieve.
Interrogation and forensic science are both important evidence during an investigation. However, according to your annotation, information gathered during interrogation might not be accurate. So, is strong evidence able to gathered during interrogation, or is it just an evidence that can only be taken into consideration, but is not necessarily accurate, just like polygraph?
回覆刪除In your second annotation, you use compare and contrast clue words in the second paragraph like “not only…but also…” And you also use cause and effect to highlight that interrogation is an art, like you first mention what skills these interrogators should have so that they can perfectly get the information or let criminals open their mind. It makes readers easier to get your points.
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