Tuesday, October 6, 2015

The Reid Technique: Beleaguered interrogation technique comes under attack at Brooklyn Law School in session called "Getting a Confession Versus Getting at the Truth: An Ethical Alternative to Deceptive Police Interrogation Tactics."...“U.S. interrogations cause innocent people to confess,” Kassin said. “Not everybody who gives a false confession does it because of the process of police interrogation, but most do. It's a pervasive problem and far more so than anyone ever anticipated.” “Everything is wrong with the Reid Technique,” Kassin added. Kassin claimed that false confessions are responsible for more than 25 percent of the 330 post-conviction DNA exonerations handled by the Innocence Project."

"Brooklyn Law School brought in a pair of psychology professors and a member of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary for a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) ethics roundtable on police interrogations in Downtown Brooklyn on Thursday....Tonight is obviously the capstone of this project.” This part of the series was titled "Getting a Confession Versus Getting at the Truth: An Ethical Alternative to Deceptive Police Interrogation Tactics."......... During the two-hour roundtable, professor Saul Kassin from John Jay College  described the current models used for interrogation in the U.S., focusing on one called the Reid Technique, and explained why they're outdated. “U.S. interrogations cause innocent people to confess,” Kassin said. “Not everybody who gives a false confession does it because of the process of police interrogation, but most do. It's a pervasive problem and far more so than anyone ever anticipated.” “Everything is wrong with the Reid Technique,” Kassin added. Kassin claimed that false confessions are responsible for more than 25 percent of the 330 post-conviction DNA exonerations handled by the Innocence Project. He warned that many people are susceptible to false confessions and noted the famous case of Marty Tankleff, a Long Island man falsely convicted of killing his parents, to point out that being innocent can actually work against a suspect during an interrogation.