Article regarding interrogations -
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=152466&catid=3
DiFranza spent 20 years with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. These days, the former officer teaches interrogation skills to law enforcement from all over the country at the University of North Florida's Institute of Police Technology Management. "There's a whole series of things that occur," said DiFranza.
DiFranza said going into an interrogation, investigators usually have all the evidence and facts stacked up against a suspect or person of interest.
"The questions are designed hopefully based upon the information that you have, not only the information you have on the crime scene or the crime itself, but also this particular individual."
In essence, the interrogation is simply a conversation with a purpose.
"What we do in law enforcement is we do that with a much more serious purpose to try to create this case that is based on facts and connect it with this particular individual," said DiFranza.
The main technique DiFranza teaches is building a connection with a person of interest like Harrell to keep the conversation and information flowing.
"Anybody who's listened to anybody talk before, you know when someone is trying to be deceptive with you or lie to you, and the same is reversed when you're interviewing someone."
The ultimate purpose? Getting an admission or confession,
or even determining the person being interrogated was not involved in the crime after all.
"Somebody who has absolutely no remorse or no emotion associated with what they did is not going to confess. It's simply not going to happen," said DiFranza.
BBM