Case Information is Elusive
Case management begins with the ability to assess a client’s situation and needs. This assessment largely depends on obtaining information directly from the client or from the people the client knows, including relatives, friends, neighbors, or coworkers.
These individuals are often unwilling or unable to communicate with social service case workers. Many barriers stand in the way of obtaining information, including languages, cultures, disabilities, negative perceptions associated with cooperating, and issues of trust.
Trust Produces Truth
WZ trains health and social service personnel to use non-confrontational interviewing techniques that quickly produces accurate information. Our training teaches case workers to apply a flexible, strategic approach as they question clients and other individuals.
Our Certified Forensic Interviewers show participants how to adapt their interview techniques to different personalities, challenges, and circumstances. It equips them with the skills they need to overcome hesitation, build trust, and gently uncover the truth. Our training enables social service personnel to obtain case information more rapidly and reliably, which ultimately leads to more effective service.
I just wanted to drop you gentlemen a note to let you know how much your class has helped me in interviewing and interrogating suspects. It has made the difference between night and day!
The day after our last day in class, I had to interview and interrogate a woman who had been hired as a foster caregiver for two separate elderly women. In each case she had won the elderly women’s trust and thereafter stole from them unmercifully. I started with the Selective Interview and then appealed to her emotions. I found in this case and in the 10 others I have done since the class that the emotional approach is really the way to go. When I used the “Change their Perspective”, I really see them bite (take the hook, line and sinker). I give the “Hope in their predicament”, created the ole “Buyer Urgency”, and in most cases don’t have to “Protect the Evidence”. They just fold. I am still learning how to develop the confession so I get more than some admissions. I have found that once they’ve taken the big step and admitted one thing (out of the miriad of crimes they have committed), I can get them to confess to many more.
The day after the above-mentioned interview, I interviewed and interrogated a spin-off player from this investigation. To make a long story short, she confessed to a crime that I had absolutely no idea had ever been committed. All from using the emotional approach and developing her confession. I just now finished interviewing her accomplice at the jail. He is a professional criminal that is intellectually quite astute and not just con-wise. I appealed emotionally to his “honor”, because another detective said he has a code of honor in his criminal affairs. It worked beautifully and he gave it all up.
I have had only two times when I could not stop the denials. In both cases I was satisfied that they were not involved in the crime. It was a shot in the dark for me, because some circumstances told me they could have possibly been involved. The point is, I would not have been certain they were not suspects had I not had your training.
More than words can say, Thank you very much!!!
Doug R. Jordan Eugene Police Department
To learn more on how WZ can create a custom program for your organization click here.
For additional information or questions contact Bob Brislan, Business Development Manager, by phone at 800.222.7789 x103 or by e-mail at bbrislan@w-z.com.
CFI recertification credits are dependent on the length of the seminar (24 total needed)