SKIP TO CONTENT
We use both our own and third-party cookies for statistical purposes and to improve our services. If you continue to browse, we consider that you accept the use of these.

  • Celebrating 20 Years of Training Excellence 2004-2024

REGISTER
REGISTER

  • Intro to Science-Based Interviewing

Elevate Your Interviewing Expertise
Gain the skills to conduct ethical, science-based interviews. Learn to organize data, create strategic plans, and craft Opening Lines that consider diverse perspectives.
________________________________________
Why This Course?
Compliant with AB2644 and grounded in modern research, this training avoids pseudo-science and coercion, equipping you with tools for legally sound, research-driven interviews with both children and adults. Led by the CA P.O.S.T. instructors who teach and certify new SBI professionals, this course offers the unique opportunity to learn directly from those shaping the future of Science-Based Interviewing.
________________________________________
What You’ll Learn
• ORBIT Framework: Build and maintain rapport effectively.
• Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE): Plan and execute evidence-based approaches.
• Cognitive Interviews: Apply memory models for accurate information retrieval.
• Interview Maps: Enhance preparation and outcomes.
This hands-on course combines lectures, discussions, audiovisual aids, and practical exercises.

Seminar Highlights

• History and evolution of Science-Based Interviewing (SBI)
• Planning and executing effective interviews
• Building impactful first impressions
• Active listening with the HEEAAR Principle
• Memory and cognition for better outcomes
• Practical exercises to reinforce learning

Course Outline

Expanded Course Outline

Expanded Course Outline

Overview & Introductions

  • Welcome
  • Course expectations/POST documentation
  • Introduction of Instructors/Coaches
  • Introduction of students
  • Student expectations of course

Planning & Analysis

  • Process called The Boards (Data Assessment)
  • Identify; Facts/Information/Inferences/Gaps/Objectives
  • Chart these
  • Breathing, living document that could change as interview evolves

Impression Management

  • Thought processing
  • Biases
  • Stereotype Content Model
  • Warmth & Competence

Brand Identification & Management

  • Personal branding
  • Perspectives wheel modeling
  • How we see subject
  • How the subject sees themselves
  • How subject sees us
  • Who do we need to be?

Engage and Explain

  • First Lines & Predictable Dialogue

Questioning Strategies

  • Framing Questions
  • TED
  • Interview Maps

Observing Rapport-Based Interpersonal Techniques (ORBIT)

  • What is rapport
  • What is not rapport

HEEAAR Principle

  • Honesty
  • Empathy
  • Evocation
  • Autonomy
  • Adaptation
  • Reflection
  • Obstacles to listening

Cognition and Cognitive Interview

  • Research based
  • Memory enhancing
  • Not based on question/answer
  • Define roles/expectations
  • Explain purpose of the interview
  • Explain the ground rules and expectations
  • Encourage active participation
  • Request a free narrative
  • Context reinstatement
  • Form a mental image of the scene
  • Put back in context of the scene to remember more details
  •  Vision, Smell, Sound, Taste, Temperature, Use all senses; No detail is too small
  • Supplemental memory techniques
  • Reverse order
  • Sketching

Credibility assessment

  • We have been taught that we are good at detecting deception
  • We are good at being lied to not at detecting when someone lies
  • Studies show we are just over 50% chance of detecting deception
  • Beliefs about deception
  • Visual cue research
  • Verbal cue research
  • Indicators of credibility
  • Inclusion of quotations
  • Inclusion of unexpected incidents (complications)
  • Inclusion of verifiable details
  • Inclusion of Spontaneous corrections
  • Presence of these does not necessarily mean truth-telling
  • Absence of these does not necessarily mean deception

Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE)

  • Having a plan versus not having a plan
  • Evaluate evidence
  • Available evidence
  • Validated evidence
  • What does this evidence tell us?
  • What am I willing to use this evidence for?
  • Engage and Explain
  • Elicit Information/Prompt Memory
  • Confront Deception
  •  Disclosure
  • Early disclosure
  • Late disclosure
  • SUE Funnels
  • Start wide
  • Close-ended questions
  • Bring the subject into evidence slowly
  • Provide multiple opportunities to tell the truth or deny
  • Lock them into a statement
  • If at any time, they answer YES, go to TED
  • Evidence Framing Matrix

Seminar Speakers

  • Incredible training with amazing real world instruction. I have been taking law enforcement classes for over 30 years and by far this is the best presented and most useful.

    —Det. Brian Dale, Portland Police Bureau

  • This training provided the useful tools necessary for assessing the veracity of a suspected child abuser, which goes a long way in helping to protect children.

    —Sunny Burgan, MSSW, LCSW, Social Work Supervisor, Santa Clara County DFCS

  • Your training has made the greatest and most direct impact on my assignment of any training class that I've taken.

    —Ken Gelskey, National City Police Department

  • I highly recommend this training for any Probation staff who have the necessity to interview/interrogate individuals for investigation purposes.

    —R. Bret Fidler, Santa Clara County Probation Department

  • The information presented was highly relevant to my job and was presented in a manner that was organized and very easy to digest.

    —Michael McGarvey, California State Prison, San Quentin

  • Your training gave me the confidence and tools to interview the suspect for over 5 hours and to bring a closure to the case.

    —Daniel Phelan, San Jose Police Department

  • This training by far has been the most informative and most effective I've attended. The instructors engaged the students in a manner that made me want to speak my opinion, ask questions, and participate.

    —Julio Ibarra, Merced County Sheriff’s Office

  • This was, by far and away the best training I have received in 15 plus years of Law Enforcement. The instructors are experienced, engaging, articulate, and very entertaining. I will be recommending this training to multiple agencies.

    —Mark Paynter, Oregon DOC

  • Effective teaching teams! The presentation of the material was consistently interesting, and intelligent without being too intellectualized.

    —Michele Keller, Deputy Probation Officer, County of Alameda

  • Instructional style is engaging and highly effective.

    —George Laing, Fire Prevention Captain, Investigator

  • This was, by far, one of the most useful training classes I've attended since becoming an investigator.

    —Steven Aiello, Antioch Police Department

  • It not often that you go to a training that you really, really want to pay attention to. Because of the high quality information and style of presentation, I knew that if I looked away I was going to miss out.

    —Quinten Graves, Oregon State Police

  • I will continue to use and pass on this information because I really believe in the instructors and their approach.

    —Kimberly Meyer, Washoe County Sheriff's Department

OTHER COURSES FOR YOU

two empty chairs and a table View Course
Jan 14 - 16, 2025 | Tracy

Interview and Interrogation Training
constitution View Course
Jan 20 - 21, 2025 | Mountain View

Search, Seizure, and Search Warrants
man on the ground View Course
Jan 20 - 21, 2025 | Santa Clara

Cold Case Homicide Investigation
crime scene View Course
Feb 10 - 11, 2025 | Santa Clara

Death Investigation
BROWSE COURSES