GIST: "Thirty officers from 21 agencies are in Enid this week for specialized training for interviews related to child abuse investigations. For the second time in as many years, Garfield County Child Advocacy Director Carole Wade obtained a Victims of Crime Act grant for the training from the Reid Institute. Instructor Mike Masokas will present a four-day course titled “Investigative Interviewing and Positive Persuasion for Child Abuse Investigations.” "This is the most professional interview class that I have ever been to in 21 years of service," said Enid Police Department Lt. Dustin Albright, who organized this week's training. Albright said he attended the training in 2001, when he was an investigator of crimes against children for the department. "The opportunity for these smaller agencies to get this training is invaluable," he said. "And that was Carole's vision ... to try to reach out to as many smaller agencies possible out west so that we could help as many people try to solve these types of cases." "They've told me that child abuse cases are so time consuming. If somebody stole something they have evidence when they find it. A lot of times with child abuse, they're still trying to find the guy to even interview him," Wade said. "I just don’t want a child abuse investigation to not happen because somebody doesn’t have the training to do it well or because they don't feel comfortable with with. I would want them to not like child abuse cases but to feel competent, skilled." John E. Reid and Associates began developing interview and questioning techniques in 1947. The Reid Technique is the most widely used approach to question subjects in the world. The content of the technique's instructional material has continued to develop and change over the years......... The training includes interviewing techniques, specific questions to ask alleged abusers, reading of body language and physical responses, as well as other methods of truth seeking in interviews. "This training definitely helps law enforcement resolve these issues more timely and more effectively," Albright said of its use in child abuse investigations. "This is all for the children. This is why we do what we do." "I think the more we can train everybody, the more training we can give them and the more skilled we can make them, the better off the team is going to be," Wade said."