"Usually we are motivated by tragedy... We don't see the way we can improve things, we wait until something really bad happens. And that's something we've got to stop doing."
Jim Trainum, Ex Police Detective & Law Enforcement Consultant
SYNOPSIS
Interrogated is an investigative documentary that explores the causes of false confessions and the history of police interrogations in the United States. After their traumatic false confession experiences and over 65 years combined behind bars, Jeffrey Deskovic and David McCallum join the fight for justice in exposing the pitfalls of the Reid Technique, law enforcement's top interrogation tactic. Alongside expert witnesses, criminal defense attorneys such as Ron Kuby, and a first of its kind reenactment, the technique is challenged in order to determine exactly how police interrogations can go wrong.
The REID Technique
The number one interrogation tactic used by law enforcement in the United States is the accusatory approach. The creator of this approach is what is known as The Reid Technique.
The Reid Technique, popularized by psychologist and former Chicago police officer John E. Reid, is a technique used to create a high pressure environment and psychologically break down suspects to extract information. The technique was fashioned in the 1950’s and was modeled after one of Reid’s own extracted confessions. Despite this confession being proven false, the technique rose to popularity and became standard practice in the U.S. for law enforcement.
The Reid Technique consists of three phases: factual analysis, behavior analysis, and the final nine-step interrogation phase. This process can take anywhere from mere minutes to hours long, with research showing the longer an interrogation, the more likely the confession will be false.
According to the innocence project, out of the 360+ Dna exonerations to date, 30% involved false confessions.