A core component of criminal investigation is the investigative interview, wherein the goal is to collect relevant information and a detailed account of the situation surrounding the offense. The Swedish Police Authority reported undertaking over a million investigative interviews in 2020 (Polismyndigheten 2021). Interviewing is a time-consuming and resource-intensive task within the criminal justice system; each interviewer must carry out an investigative interview professionally in accordance with the law and gain information to build a case. Extensive debate exists within the scientific literature in attempts to identify effective strategies and outline approaches to training interview skills (for reviews, see Akca et al. 2021; Gabbert et al. 2021; Meissner et al. 2023). Swedish police recently adopted a new model for investigative interviewing to be implemented and trained with both new recruits and experienced officers (Polismyndigheten 2021). As such, the aim of the present study is to explore perceptions of effective interviewing and the training of the requisite skills from the perspective of Swedish investigative interviewing instructors within the police training programs.

Previous research highlights that interviewing styles characterized by cooperation, open communication, and trust yield the greatest amount of truthful information (Holmberg and Madsen 2014; Kebbell et al. 2010; Meissner et al. 2014). Holmberg and Christianson (2002) outlined that police interviewing behaviors can be categorized into either a humane or dominant interviewing style. The humane interviewing style endeavors to make the interviewee feel at ease to garner better conditions for sharing information and is characterized by exhibiting empathy, demonstrating a positive attitude toward the interviewee, and being accommodating. Conversely, the dominant style consists of exhibiting impatience, aggression, and a brusque manner of conduct. The humane interviewing style has been shown to generate more information from witnesses (Holmberg and Madsen 2014) and is more likely to garner confessions from suspects when compared to the dominant interviewing style (Kebbell et al. 2010). Meissner et al. (2014) further delineated interviewing styles into information-gathering approaches and accusatorial interrogation styles. In their review, information-gathering approaches were associated with a greater proportion of true confessions and a reduced likelihood of false confessions, compared to accusatory interrogation approaches.

Within the humane interviewing style, behaviors that facilitate communication and disclosure (Collins and Carthy 2019; Gabbert et al. 2021) are associated with conversational rapport (Brimbal et al. 2021). Rapport has many definitions but can be generalized as a sense of cohesiveness and unity shared by participants in interaction (for an overview of definitions and uses in investigative interviewing, see Vallano and Schreiber Compo 2015). The predominant model of rapport within investigative interviewing (Tickle-Degnen and Rosenthal 1990) divides rapport into three components: mutual attention, cooperation, and positivity. Recent reviews have attempted to identify specific behaviors that facilitate rapport in the investigative interviewing context (e.g., Collins and Carthy 2019; Gabbert et al. 2021). These include the use of active listening, giving procedural information when possible, and offering empathic responses. Similarly, there is a lack of consistency in the use of the term empathy where several taxonomies of investigator empathy are now used in interviewing research (e.g., Baker-Eck et al. 2020, 2021; Dando and Oxburgh 2016; Jakobsen 2021). This lack of consensus extends to the identification and description of related interviewing skills; for example, flexibility and adaptability have been cited as being important, but the definition and operationalization of flexibility vary across studies (Bloksgaard and Prieur 2021; Cherryman and Bull 2001; Clarke et al. 2011; Mount and Mazerolle 2021).

In an effort to identify the role of empathy and rapport within the use of interview skills, researchers have explored the perspectives of experienced investigative interviewers to study specific behaviors of effective interviewing (e.g., Magnusson et al. 2021; Rudolfsson 2022). In a study of interviews undertaken with traumatized victims, Norwegian police were noted to move through three stages for the purpose of facilitating rapport (Risan et al. 2016a). These stages consisted of becoming aware of the interviewee’s ability to cope with distress, communicating acceptance, and modeling how to cope with painful emotions, as well as helping the interviewee feel safe. Similarly, Swedish officers have been observed to promote the development of rapport by identifying the victim’s needs and adjusting the way they speak to fit the context of the interview (Rudolfsson 2022). However, these officers expressed they sometimes struggle with setting their own emotions aside in favor of remaining objective and professional in their role as investigators.

Emotional labor (i.e., the requirement to regulate emotions when performing occupation tasks in alignment with organizational norms; Hochschild 2022) is a recognized demand of police interviews (Huey and Kalyal 2017). As such, Swedish and Norwegian police investigators report the necessity of setting aside their emotions, focusing on their professional role, and seeing the human behind the suspected crime when interviewing suspects (Magnusson et al. 2021). It warrants noting that individual differences exist across investigators and the perceived burden of emotional labor (Jones et al. 2023) and the extent of use of tactics including treating the suspect in a friendly manner, showing respect, and using active listening (Thielgen et al. 2022). Jobs with high emotional demands, like policing, have been shown to be related to higher degrees of burnout through experienced emotional dissonance and detachment among police officers (Bakker and Heuven 2006).

In attempts to ensure consistent best practices, numerous police forces have highlighted the need to establish a foundational structure of interviewing based on an evidence base. In recognition of the effectiveness of humane and information-gathering approaches (Holmberg and Christianson 2002; Meissner et al. 2014), many police forces around the world have adopted the PEACE model (Clarke and Milne 2001). Originally developed and adopted in interview training for law enforcement in the U.K. (Clarke et al. 2011; Griffiths and Milne 2006), it is now widely used in countries including Indonesia (Muniroh and Heydon 2022), U.S.A. (Brimbal et al. 2021; Fallon et al. 2022), and Australia (Mount and Mazerolle 2020, 2021). In addition to many other countries, the Swedish Police Authority recently adopted the PEACE model (see Clark and Milne 2001) and cognitive interviewing (Geiselman et al. 1986) as the national model for interviewing (Polismyndigheten 2021). The PEACE model is a chronological, stepwise framework for the interviewing process across five stages, and cognitive interviewing is a memory-enhancing technique for questioning.

Although the PEACE model can be used as a guide for conducting an interview, the model does not provide a list of specific behaviors for each stage. For example, there is no script or checklist outlining how an interview should be conducted. A great deal of responsibility is assigned to the individual interviewer to decide what approach to use as well as to determine when and how each of the five stages of the PEACE model should be undertaken. As such, interviewers are required to possess appropriate knowledge as well as expertise in implementing effective interviewing skills associated with the PEACE model. Consequently, it is imperative that interviewers are afforded training opportunities to ascertain the required knowledge and skills to use PEACE across diverse and dynamic interview situations (Clark and Milne 2001).

Training of the key skills (e.g., empathy, rapport) underpinning central aspects of the PEACE model is challenged by a lack of consensus regarding definition and conceptualization in the investigative interviewing context (Oxburgh and Ost 2011). Further, research examining rapport-building behaviors consistently highlights a lack of clarity regarding the mechanisms (Abbe and Brandon 2014) and methods of implementation in teaching and evaluating interviewing as a core skill in police work (Collins and Carthy 2019; Gabbert et al. 2021; Thielgen et al. 2022). Studies have shown mixed results in the evaluation of interview training; specifically, some studies suggest that training can be effective in developing officers’ knowledge about interviewing practices and fostering attitudes that align with humane interviewing and rapport-building practices (Akca et al. 2022; Fallon et al. 2022), while other studies show limited or mixed results in PEACE and rapport training (Akca et al. 2021; Clarke et al. 2011).

In this study, we will further investigate important skills for investigative interviewing and how these skills are trained in Swedish police as they have recently adopted a new model of interviewing in training and implementation (Polismyndigheten 2021). Specifically, to gain a better understanding of interview training, we explored the perceptions of experienced interviewing officers currently teaching interviewing to recruits in Sweden. In review of the challenges of conceptualization (e.g., empathy, rapport; Abbe and Brandon 2014; Brimbal et al. 2021; Oxburgh and Ost 2011) and measurement (e.g., evaluation of skills; Mount and Mazerolle 2020, 2021) reported in previous studies examining the relationship between the investigative interviewer and interviewee, the present study uses the term “interpersonal skills” to encompass several skills relevant to the social dynamic of investigative interviewing without naming these skills specifically. The term “interpersonal skills” has been used in interviewing research to describe the communicative connection between the interviewer and interviewee (Alison et al. 2013; Collins and Carthy 2019; Mount and Mazerolle 2021; Pounds 2019; Risan et al. 2016b; Vanderhallen and Vervaeke 2014). In this study, the term is used to encompass skills highlighted in investigative interviewing research, while allowing room for new perspectives from Swedish police teachers to be forwarded.

The focus of this study is examining experienced teachers’ perceptions of training interpersonal skills necessary for investigative interviewing and thus had two research questions:

  1. 1.

    What are the teacher’s perceptions of important interpersonal skills in investigative interviewing?

  2. 2.

    What struggles and strategies do teachers describe related to training investigative interviewing?

Method

Informants

For our intended aims, our informants needed to have specific knowledge and experience in teaching investigative interviewing to police students. We used existing contacts within the police training programs across Sweden to gather informants. Potential informants were then contacted directly via email during the autumn of 2022. This email contained information regarding the study and data storage and detailed that the study design had been reviewed by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority who raised no ethical concerns (Dnr: 2022-03659-01). The informants were asked to sign a consent form that informed them that participation was voluntary, that they could withdraw at any time, and that the information they shared would be anonymized. The informants also received an outline of the interview guide before the interviews. No incentive or compensation was offered for participation.

The recruitment process led to six informants (5 men and 1 woman). Each of the five police programs in Sweden was represented by at least one teacher (one program had two representatives). Once we had a representative from each police program and did not find other informants who were suited for our research questions, we halted data collection. The six informants were all trained police officers who taught (at the time of writing) at the police education units in Sweden. Prior to working as teachers, the informants had all worked as police officers in the field for between 20 and 40 years. Two of the informants were specially trained in child interviewing. Our informants possessed a range of teaching experience from 3–11 years within the police education units. The informants were all heavily involved with, or responsible for, teaching investigative interviewing at their respective police programs.

Interviewing Procedure

Each of the six informants was interviewed once over Zoom between January and April of 2023 by the first author. The duration of the interviews was between 42 and 116 min with an average time of 78 min. Audio and video recordings of the interviews were collected via Zoom in addition to an audio recording using a portable recorder.

The interviews followed a semi-structured interview guide. The interview guide was developed after the first author reviewed the research literature and observed how teaching was undertaken at one of the police programs and related that experience to the research questions. The interview guide was developed to allow informants to describe both the practical components of teaching at their respective programs while also giving room for personal reflections on their teaching styles and how they incorporate previous work experience into their teaching. A pilot interview was conducted with a police teacher at one of the police programs who had previously taught investigative interviewing but was now teaching other aspects of the criminal investigation process. The pilot interview showed that the interview guide functioned well overall, but broader follow-up questions were added to capture a wider range of work experiences within policing that could have an impact on the teaching of interviewing.

The final interview guide consisted of three main areas of discussion: (1) the logistics and educational context of the investigative interview training, (2) the contents of courses and lessons that the teachers are involved in, and (3) how investigative interview training is connected to the expected duties of a serving police officer. The three areas were designed to encourage reflections on how, what, and why the informants conduct interview training in specific ways. These reflections would then, in turn, allow us to answer the two research questions of what skills are important in investigative interviewing and what struggles and strategies exist for teaching those skills to recruits. For each area, the informants were first asked to describe what their teaching entailed. These open questions were then followed by requests to elaborate and clarify details. Follow-up questions included questions about the teachers’ own experiences, what the teacher values in their teaching, what works well, what students appreciate, and what difficulties teachers encounter in teaching.

Analysis

The audio files were transcribed using Microsoft Word’s transcription software; the transcriptions were proofread by the first and second authors in comparison with the audio recordings to ensure accuracy. The transcripts were then coded in Microsoft Word, and thematization was done in Microsoft Excel. The interviews were analyzed by the first and second authors through inductive, reflexive thematic analysis (Braun et al. 2016; Braun and Clarke 2006). The first author was the initial coder, which entailed coding all interview material independently. In the first step, the first author familiarized themself with the data by reading through the transcripts and taking notes of initial observations and reflections. Next, the transcripts were read through and coded. Throughout the coding process, the second author, who was also familiar with the data, acted as a “critical friend” (Smith and McGannon 2018) and added their independent perspective to the analysis. This was done iteratively throughout the analytic process during reoccurring meetings where the first and second authors discussed interpretations of the data and the generation and collapsing of codes. Through the process of collapsing and combining codes, themes were generated through discussions with the second author. At these final stages of generating and checking themes, the collaborative discussions were also instrumental in deciding when and how to exclude codes. The main reason codes were excluded was if they related to aspects of investigative interviewing that were not central to our research questions. Examples of areas where codes were excluded are informants detailing previous cases, specific questioning strategies, or other parts of the police training that were not related to interviewing. The remaining themes were then checked to see if they fit both the coded extracts and the data set as a whole. The themes were then given final names and descriptions. Quotes used to exemplify themes were translated by the first author from Swedish to English.

The first author had some experience teaching interviewing in a police education setting. This experience was beneficial when designing the interview guide, formulating follow-up questions, and interpreting the informants’ responses. The second author did not have experience in either teaching investigative interviewing or training police more generally. This alternative perspective was beneficial for triangulation during the analysis where interpretations of the data were discussed between the first and second authors. The remaining co-authors also did not have any experience teaching investigative interviewing. Having a research team consisting of experts outside of the field of interviewing helped shed new light on the answers given by our informants and was beneficial when interpreting our analysis in a broader theoretical and practical context.

Results

The findings from the thematic analysis are presented in two sections that correspond with the two research questions. The first section focuses on what skills are important in investigative interviewing, and the second section focuses on the struggles and strategies that the informants face in teaching interviewing. Data analysis yielded three higher themes and two subthemes relating to the research question exploring the important skills in investigative interviewing. The second research question on struggles and strategies in teaching also yielded four higher themes and two subthemes. To exemplify the themes, we have chosen quotes that highlight the informants’ perspectives as they relate to the themes while also offering diversity in examples and experiences.

Interpersonal Skills Important to Investigative Interviewing

Thematic analysis resulted in three higher themes and two subthemes relating to what informants described as important skills for investigative interviewing. The themes are summarized in Table 1 and are expanded upon below.

Table 1 Themes, subthemes, and descriptions of interpersonal skills important to investigative interviewing
Full size table

Perspective Taking

The informants outlined that perspective-taking entails gaining an understanding of who the interviewee is, their needs, and what the interviewer’s professional role is in relation to the interviewee. Several informants described the importance of the interviewer’s ability to remember that the interviewee is also a person. One informant explained:

I have said this when I have sat in front of a murderer that even they were a baby once. Even he was a baby once. And how did it end up like this? He is sitting here as a murder suspect. Well, there are all these factors, but I mean there is a person behind it. Even a murder suspect, and you have to treat them with respect too. (Teacher B)

This form of perspective-taking demonstrates being able to look past labels within the justice system (e.g., suspect, victim, witness) and focus on the person in front of you. Teacher B uses the phrase “Even he was a baby once” as a reminder to shift focus from sitting in front of a murder suspect to treating the person with respect and creating the best communicative environment for the interviewee to share information.

Some informants also expressed that perspective-taking can be especially difficult if the person or event being investigated is emotionally upsetting to the interviewer. This was most commonly expressed when discussing interviews with suspects. Overall, the informants described that the interviewer’s own feelings might stand in the way of relating to the interviewee in some circumstances. Here, some informants remarked that it is important to remember that the role of the interviewer is to be objective, and the interviewer must listen and encourage the interviewee to share regardless of the event under investigation.

Perspective-taking was reported as being a consideration beyond interviews with suspects; it extended to any person being interviewed. In our analysis, we found accounts of how it is common practice for police to use jargon that is understood by police but not by the public. Our interpretation of these examples is that officers need to take the perspective of someone who does not understand the legal process or share the background experience and/or training as the interviewing officer. One informant highlighted the consequences when police systematically do not take other people’s perspectives into account:

Sometimes police will do the right thing but phrase it wrong and those are the times when people say that nobody believes me. “They did not believe me.” I am not so sure that is the case and I think that sometimes, maybe often, I do not know, we are clumsy and ask questions in a bad way so that it sounds like we are arguing. (Teacher E)

Responsibility for Rapport

The informants highlighted that working strategically to create a good communicative environment leads to more information and fewer misunderstandings. One informant described how being a good interviewer means actively working toward creating the right conditions for the interviewee instead of relying on this work to have already been done:

Sometimes the person has the motivation and prerequisites beforehand, but then we are banking on luck, and we should not do that. We should work with skill in the sense that we learn what tools to use, what structures to work within to make sure that we create the best possible conditions to reach the point where the person is willing, dares to take the consequences, and is able to share. (Teacher F)

Some informants also described how building rapport through small talk and getting to know the interviewee help set the right conditions for the interview. They explained that the purpose of this is for the interviewee to feel more comfortable and for the interviewer to understand how to approach the interview. One informant described how they cannot rely on scripts or manuals to develop rapport:

There are examples in different ways, like different research articles on what rapport could do and be. And it is actually up to the individual police officer in that situation to see what works for me, because it might not work for you, and find your own channels to reach this collaborative alliance. (Teacher D)

This quote by Teacher D implies that it is the interviewer’s responsibility to work in a way that is suitable for them, the interviewee, and the situation. The informants also expressed that this process of getting to know the interviewee takes time. However, they were quick to point out that time spent building rapport usually saves time later in the interview as misunderstandings can be prevented. One informant described how this connection between taking time to build rapport and the interview yield is not always clear to students. This informant noted that they had to emphasize this point when teaching students who think building rapport is a waste of time:

If you start cutting corners with time because you think that, then that is taking bad shortcuts because it is the opposite, you make it more likely that [the interviewee] will not remember as much. They will not perform at their maximum capacity because they are sitting there and are worried about things. They are stressed because you have not explained properly. They do not understand the structure. (Teacher A)

Flexibility

Several informants mentioned that there is no script for interviewing that will work for every interview since officers hold many different types of interviews in varying situations and circumstances. The informants described that if an interviewer can adjust their communication to fit the interview, the interview itself will yield better results. Analysis of the informants’ reports indicated that an important interviewing skill is the ability to be flexible in how interviews are conducted. Informants described two forms of flexibility outlining a process of adjusting behavior to the people being interviewed and adjusting to the surrounding circumstances. As such, two subthemes for flexibility are labeled: social flexibility and situational flexibility.

Social Flexibility

When describing flexibility associated with interviewing behaviors, the informants described adjusting to the person being interviewed. We labeled this social flexibility as it describes adaptations undertaken in consideration of another person’s needs. Our summation of the purpose of these adjustments is to support the interviewee in adopting a mental state where they are prepared to share information. One informant described their view of adjusting to the person as follows:

It is about this idea that speaking to people in their own way of speaking. Maybe it is a cliché, but there is actually something to it. For the person you are meeting to be able to understand, to keep some kind of respectful exchange in the conversation, there is a demand on you to adjust. (Teacher E)

The informants also highlighted that this requirement to adjust is a professional skill that police students should start to think about during training. When talking about how to adjust to the interviewee, Teacher E also expressed “there is no script, rather you have to feel it out then and there.” Teacher D described how they encouraged students to think about ways of adjusting to the interviewee as “professional strategies” to reach the intended goal of gathering information. These examples suggest that when undertaking mock interviews as part of training, it is important that students reflect on how they can be flexible in their behaviors to better communicate with the person they are meeting. The informants outlined that the most lucrative approach in eliciting information is for the interviewer to find a variety of strategies for different interactions and be able to work flexibly when adjusting to diverse individuals.

In providing examples of adjusting behavior, the informants outlined strategies such as adapting their explanations of the legal process to the interviewee, framing questions in non-confrontational ways, and modifying the formality of their speech. In our analysis, we found descriptions that suggest that the interviewee is more likely to share information if they understand why the officer is asking certain questions, what will be done with the information shared, and assess the interview as being a safe place to talk. The informants also highlighted that while a professional interviewer should be able to adapt their communication to the receiver, they still need to work within the PEACE model and other interviewing guidelines. One informant illustrated how the idea of flexibility and working within guidelines are related:

I see the PEACE model as a framework that we operate within, and within this framework we have to be observant and flexible based on the person we are meeting and what needs that person is expressing then and there in the interviewing room. Otherwise, we will have a blunt instrument that will work in some interviews, but far from all interviews. (Teacher F)

Situational Flexibility

Similar to the requirement of adjusting to different people, the informants also described the importance of adapting to different situations. Our interviews contained several examples that illustrated the nature of police work and the demand placed on officers to investigate many different types of crime within diverse circumstances; as such, no two investigations will be identical. For the informants, this outlines the requisite of being able to conduct interviews relating to different crimes, in different locations (e.g., at the police station, or on the side of a busy street) and with varying opportunities for preparation (e.g., having 2 weeks to prepare or being called out on short notice to a crime scene).

For the informants, a crucial part of the police program is preparing students for working within a functional police force. This was commonly expressed as providing students with relevant tools for everyday work duties. Teacher C specifically recounted that they deliberately designed interviewing exercises to contain a lot of difficult components so that students get to practice handling complex situations. These complex situations entail securing a crime scene and taking fingerprints, while there are several witnesses in proximity that need to be separated and interviewed independently. This informant also described how students need to know how to adapt their procedural knowledge (e.g., the PEACE model) to what the situation demands:

They need to adjust to the situation, and we talk about that at the seminar too. You will not have two weeks on a case to prepare yourselves. You cannot rearrange the furniture to make it nicer and paint green, calming colors in this interviewing room. (Teacher C)

Collectively, the informants recounted how the work of a police officer is multifaceted and requires an officer to be able to act professionally and appropriately regardless of the nature of the situation or investigation. One informant emphasized the importance of students being prepared for many diverse situations and cases for their future work in the police force:

There are so many specialties that they would not stand a chance to have such a specialized role [straight after training], but if you work in a structured way then they can convert to any specialty and still have a good grasp of the basics and not ruin things. (Teacher A)

Teachers’ Strategies and Challenges During Training

Our second research question concerned what strategies and challenges teachers encounter when training in investigative interviewing. The thematic analysis resulted in four higher themes with two subthemes. These themes are summarized in Table 2 and expanded upon below.

Table 2 Themes, subthemes, and descriptions of strategies and challenges in teaching investigative interviewing
Full size table

Bridging Theory and Practice

The informants described how the police program consists of both theoretical knowledge and practical skills that are necessary for police work. Several informants described how they see a divide between theory and practice within the police program that needs to be addressed during training. This was often described as a challenge when teaching interviewing. From our analysis, we interpreted that this divide between the theoretical and the practical aspects occurs due to the need for both scheduled theory-driven lectures and practically oriented training sessions. For the informants, it is necessary to be conscious of this divide and to address it during training to help students bridge the gap. One informant described that “the big difference is if you can talk about it, if you are only on a theoretical level, or if you can actually do it. The students struggle with that sometimes” (Teacher A).

The informants highlighted that it is important that students can use their knowledge in a practical sense when interviewing. Some informants described how students must first gain a theoretical understanding of areas such as procedural justice, psychology, and communication. They described that this theoretical knowledge must then be transferred to the implementation of practical skills and strategies. It was described as a stepwise process where the teachers are vital in guiding the students through the necessary steps. One important aspect of bridging this gap is that students gain experience conducting interviews. As Teacher F alludes to below, the training with mock interviews starts early and is built around helping students explore ways of making theoretical knowledge more engrained and embodied in practice:

The step after the lecture is that they get to start trying, to try it for themselves by conducting their first interviewing exercise. That is when they get their own experiences of how they use their knowledge in this actual situation. Which parts are easier, which parts are harder? (Teacher F)

Training Flexibility Through Diverse Scenarios

When investigating strategies for training key skills, we found that our informants described how they actively work to develop both social flexibility and situational flexibility in interviewing. Several informants explained how they make sure their students practice their skills in environments that are as close to reality as possible. This entailed holding mock interviews with actors, using campus buildings designed to look like a police station, and holding interviews outside in connection to a mock crime scene. The informants highlighted that holding interviews this way helps develop skills and behaviors that are closely related to the work that the students will undertake after their education. The informants also described that it is difficult to train these skills through traditional teaching methods where theory dominates the focus (i.e., through reading or lectures). One informant explained how they rely on other pedagogical approaches:

The basic idea is always that you need to practice things as close to realistic situations as possible. That is the core of the context. And not just talking about theory because you need to be able to handle it. Suddenly there is a person in front of you. Then you need to speak, in what way are you expressing yourself, can you say things in an easy way so that other people can understand? (Teacher A)

The quote from Teacher A highlights that this idea of training in realistic scenarios is related to the previously described theme of bridging the gap between theory and practice. However, when describing how they design their practical exercises, the informants express that realistic scenario training is the focus, rather than focusing on tailoring exercises to specific theoretical concepts.

We found that a common goal among the informants was for students to practice making decisions and adjusting their interviewing behaviors to different situations. Training in diverse can help students get a sense of when certain behaviors work and how they might impact the interview and the broader investigation. The informants described how training in realistic scenarios aims to create experiences for the students to reflect upon when later evaluating their interviewing technique:

My long-term goal with teaching is to reach a deeper learning among the students. That it is not just learning for the purpose of passing a certain course and different exams. Rather, that they actually get a structure and tools to use and work with later when they get out and function as police officers where the conditions are much, much harder than what they are here at the police program. (Teacher F)

Adapting to Student Characteristics

The informants described how they focus on teaching all students to interview to an adequate standard regardless of previous work or life experience. At all the police training programs, students receive standardized training regardless of future specializations during employment within the Swedish police force. Some informants highlighted that each student must receive teaching and guidance so that they can meet these standards of adequacy. However, the informants also express that there are challenges when the student population is diverse in their previous life experiences, interests, and abilities. The informants described how the students’ background can influence engagement with the interview training. In our analysis, we found two prominent areas where our informants noticed an impact of these student characteristics. This resulted in the two subthemes of the ability to self-reflect and the need for social maturity.

Ability to Self-Reflect

When our informants described their teaching philosophies and strategies, there was a common expectation that students were required to reflect on their interviewing practices. Several informants echoed the sentiments of the PEACE model in that self-reflection and evaluation allow the interviewer to evaluate their performance and better develop their skills and interviewing behaviors for future interviews. However, the informants also described the obstacles that hinder both students and active officers from engaging in self-reflection. For instance, one informant highlighted that self-reflection is time-consuming and can sometimes be uncomfortable:

Number one, stop and do it. It does not have to happen every time or every other time, every third time, but every once in a while. When you do it, be honest with yourself which can be hard enough because your own mistakes often taste bitter but are very informative. So, number one, do it. Number two, be honest with yourself. Number three, ask for feedback. (Teacher F)

We found that all the informants described using their own experiences and those of other experts in their teaching. However, most were also quick to add that students must always be able to reflect on their own actions. To learn how to work flexibly, students are asked to practice their interviewing and then reflect on their own behaviors in a teaching environment where expertise is helpful but not considered binding for every situation. One informant explained that as a teacher, they are “completely disinterested in what [the course literature] says on page 170. [The students] need to refer to [it] but need to be able to give their own examples because they have started to become professionals now” (Teacher D).

Some informants also described that this focus on self-reflection in teaching demands that students are both able and willing to do this type of reflection. One informant described how some students are not primarily interested in interviewing. Rather, some students see their work as that of police officers which is comprised of other skills and performing other tasks:

There is some kind of view, maybe, among some that ‘But interviewing, why are we doing that? I am going to save the world and arrest bad guys and then others can do the rest.’ It is a little cooler to work in the reinforced regional task force than it is to be an interviewer. There is something like that, that kind of shadow, over the whole thing and it has always been there and will surely always be there. (Teacher C)

Need for Social Maturity

The informants explained that factors such as social maturity, previous life experience, and people skills are individual differences that can influence student success in interview training and the ability to reflect on the training. One informant highlighted that a challenge in teaching occurs when students do not already have certain skills that can be considered prerequisites for good interviewing:

I feel like many struggle with, or I have at least gotten those comments ‘well, when are we going to learn how to talk to people?’ It is not super common, but even so it is a little strange, I think, to ask such a question. Well, because we do not really have a course for that. We expect them to be at least decently good at handling themselves in a conversation. (Teacher C)

Some informants described a general trend of personal growth among the students from the first to second year of training. Teacher E noted, “there is a maturity in their reasoning combined with them finding confidence. So, they recognize things, and they can look back on previous exercises and so on.” We interpreted this, and similar examples, to imply that students tend to mature as a natural consequence of aging and because of other training they receive within the police program.

Several informants highlighted that individual differences can limit how much of the teaching and training a student will engage with and integrate. Some students have an easier time with interview training, while others struggle to grasp key concepts and components:

You will not get everyone on the bandwagon, of course not. They are individuals so some have a longer road ahead. Because there is such a wide array of ages, I mean the youngest is not yet twenty and the oldest is fifty, they have completely different views on everything depending on life experience and previous jobs. (Teacher E)

Working with Limited Resources

A reoccurring theme within the challenges associated with teaching concerned how our informants must work within the time constraints that exist in the police program. Several informants emphasized the importance of students having enough time to practice interviewing but expressed that there is not always enough time allotted to interviewing. Similarly, informants suggested that students express to their teachers that they would like more time for interviewing within their education. Due to the limited time, informants described that they need to be creative when creating training opportunities:

They tell us that they think that they hold too few interviews. They want more interviews within the education. And as I told you, what should we do about this? Maybe we will not get more scheduled lessons, maybe we need to change some structures. (Teacher B)

Teacher B asked, “what should we do about this?” indicating a level of frustration with the time allocation to interviews. The informants collectively agreed with the students that more interview training would be beneficial.

One informant also described that there are differences in resource allocation within the police program where some subjects receive more training than others. The informant described how this is most likely due to the degree to which some parts of police work are more strictly regulated and thus need to be trained in more regimented ways:

There is a lot of effort put into conflict management and weapons and spike strips and tasers and everything. Those are regulated by documents and guidelines so there is not much to say about it. This means that out in the field, all this regulated education, there is so much effort and time put into it, so there is not much time for all these other things that need to be done. (Teacher E)

The balance between the ambition to have more interview training and resource allocation is summed up in a quote by Teacher C. This quote illustrates how existing limits within the structure of police education determine the expectations teachers can set within their interviewing courses:

We have a former prosecutor who has worked a lot with intimate partner violence who has very high ambitions that [the students] need to become very good at that. In the best of worlds, we could have such high ambitions for everything we do, but at some point, we also have to think, well, what is good enough? (Teacher C)

Discussion

This study aimed to explore Swedish police teachers’ perceptions of the central skills in investigative interviewing as well as the challenges and strategies these teachers experience in the delivery of training. The teachers highlight perspective-taking, building rapport, social flexibility, and situational flexibility as important skills for interviewing. When describing strategies for teaching and struggles they face in training, the teachers described the need to bridge theory and practice, train flexibility through diverse scenarios, adapt to students’ social maturity and ability to self-reflect, and work with limited resources allotted to interview training.

Interpersonal Skills for Investigative Interviewing

Our informants outlined a range of interpersonal skills they perceive as central to effective interviewing; these include being able to take the perspective of the interviewee, remember the interviewee’s humanity, understand that the interviewer is responsible for building rapport, and find strategies to adjust their behavior to both the person and the context with the aim of creating the best possible conditions for information sharing.

Currently, within the Swedish police, there is no script available for how an interview should be conducted. From our informants’ experiences, increased information yield is dependent upon the interviewer’s ability to take another’s perspective and then use communicative strategies that fit the context and the person being interviewed. Perspective-taking and communication are not passive processes. Our informants described the importance of phrasing your questions in non-confrontational ways and being willing to set your own negative emotions aside to focus on the person’s humanity. Previous research (e.g., Rudolfsson 2022) describes that putting one’s emotions aside in interviewing for the benefit of the investigation is a difficult process. Further, expressions of friendliness and showing respect are effective tactics underpinning effective interviewing (Magnusson et al. 2021). It is also important to note that regulating emotions, shifting perspectives, and using appropriate language are applicable strategies for the interviewer across all types of interviews regardless of whether the interviewee is a suspect, victim, or witness (Collins and Carthy 2019; Madsen and Holmberg 2015; Meissner et al. 2023).

Our informants also highlighted an important distinction in the types of flexibility underpinning effective interviewing. They described the importance of being able to adapt their interviewing behavior to both the person they are speaking to (i.e., social flexibility) and the surrounding context (i.e., situational flexibility). In describing social flexibility, our informants highlighted behavior such as adjusting their use of language to better suit the interviewee. Previous research has highlighted the benefits for interviewers of adapting the phrasing of questions (Oxburgh et al. 2010) and linguistic style matching (Richardson et al. 2014) to the interviewee. Situational flexibility, on the other hand, is described by our informants as adjusting the interviewing procedure to better fit the place, the situation in the field, and the investigation overall. Previous studies have also highlighted the benefits of making the interviewee feel comfortable in the interview room (Risan et al. 2016a; Vanderhallen and Vervaeke 2014). This distinction between social and situational flexibility made by our informants shows that these two types of flexibility are not the same and both need to be considered in training. Previous studies have acknowledged flexibility as an important interview skill (e.g. Bloksgaard and Prieur 2021; Cherryman and Bull 2001; Clarke et al. 2011; Mount and Mazerolle 2021) yet offer limited clarification of how and when it is to be considered and implemented. This study highlights that flexibility is not a unidimensional skill; flexibility takes different forms for different aspects of the interview process. Considering the importance of flexibility as an interpersonal skill, further research examining both antecedents and outcomes of interviewer flexibility is warranted to advance approaches to training.

The informants outlined that taking another’s perspective, building rapport, and adjusting to the interviewee are behaviors that most reliably facilitate effective interviewing. The informants specified that it is the responsibility of the interviewer to facilitate the development of rapport. Risan et al. (2016a) found similar tactics used by Norwegian police where interviewers described working toward becoming aware of the interviewee’s needs, communicating acceptance, and responding to the interviewee’s emotional needs. The goal for the Norwegian interviewers was to create a safe and effective communicative environment by understanding the interviewee and adjusting to accommodate the individual’s needs (Risan et al. 2016a). Taken collectively, the findings of the present study and previous research suggest that experienced interviewers find it beneficial to work toward facilitating the best communicative conditions for the interviewee. Creating psychologically safe communicative conditions and a focus on the interviewee’s well-being have been shown to yield more trustworthy information in interviews (Hess and Thrasher 2018; Vanderhallen and Vervaeke 2014). Rapport in interviewing has been shown to be related to the amount of shared information during the interviews (Alison et al. 2013; Collins and Carthy 2019). Specifically, aspects of rapport building related to attention and cooperation (Collins and Carthy 2019) and establishing a communicative alliance (Alison et al. 2013) are related to larger information yield as compared to more maladaptive and dominant interviewing styles.

Investigative Interviewing is Difficult to Teach

Our second research question explored the challenges and strategies teachers described experiencing in the delivery of training. Our informants suggested that police work was physical as such teachers must strive to imbue operationalized and practical knowledge and skillsets to their students. This need for operationalizing core concepts into tangible skills has been highlighted in research on investigative interviewing for the past decade (e.g., Akca et al. 2021; Oxburgh and Ost 2011). Although Gabbert et al. (2021) have listed key rapport behaviors, they argue that merely listing behaviors is not enough for transfer into usable and trainable tools for interviewers. Research has highlighted that without proper operationalization, rapport behaviors might become maladaptive (Nahouli et al. 2021; Richardson and Nash 2022). This study highlights that further research is needed in the combined effort to operationalize interviewing behaviors and implement their teaching via pedagogical approaches suited for the police training context.

For our informants, the need for concrete training and operationalization has led them to rely on scenario training. These scenarios are similar to forms of student-centered, problem-based learning found in previous research of police training (Shipton 2020; Mount and Mazerolle 2020, 2021). Training through varying interviewing scenarios allows teachers to guide students in the creation of their own understanding and knowledge, which has been proposed to be critical for deeper learning and skill mastery within police training (Shipton 2020).

The informants also described challenges in investigative interview training. Our informants described how they need to work with student-dependent factors such as students’ personal interest in interviewing and base-level interpersonal skills. Similar sentiments are noted in research examining Australian police training where learner motivation and self-efficacy in performing tasks are factors that influence learning outcomes (Mount and Mazerolle 2020). Trainees at early-level interview training were generally unmotivated to learn and questioned the relevance of interview training at that level (Mount and Mazerolle 2021). The reflections made by our informants that students tend to develop better reasoning skills with time are also mirrored in findings by Mount and Mazerolle (2021) where higher-level trainees were more self-motivated and more willing to improve. Mount and Mazerolle theorized that this difference is connected to the higher-level trainees being more encouraged to share previous experiences as part of their training. As teachers actively used the trainees’ experiences in their teaching, the trainees felt more connected to the curriculum and thus were more motivated to learn (Mount and Mazerolle 2021). A willingness to engage more thoroughly with the exercises and think about one’s own areas of improvement generally yields better discussions in reflective feedback sessions with teachers, and it is therefore important that police teachers can foster the development of self-reflection in their students (Mount and Mazerolle 2020, 2021; Shipton 2020).

Some aspects of the training program described by our informants are reminiscent of the idea of reflective practice that has been adopted into the training of other professions such as healthcare (Fragkos 2016), psychology (Bruno and Dell’Aversana 2017), and social work (Wilson 2013). Though there is no tradition of reflective practice within policing, Christopher (2015) argued that the profession could see several benefits if reflective practice were to be adopted more broadly in training and among experienced officers. Reflecting after challenging incidents or continually with trusted colleagues on cultural practices within police forces are lucrative ways of incorporating feedback and other perspectives into the individual officer’s own policing practice. In this study, our informants highlight the need for more opportunities for students to learn from practice sessions and through conversations with experienced officers. Our informants also highlight that there are other aspects of policing that pull time away from reflection both during and after training.

We also found that our informants noticed a difference in the extent to which students use interviewing skills depending on maturity and previous experience. Our informants mention time spent at the police program, age, previous work experience, and general life experience as all possible factors to constitute what we have thematized as “social maturity.” Previous research has shown that long-term training can have positive results on interviewer performance (Akca et al. 2022; Fallon et al. 2022), while other studies show mixed results of training (Akca et al. 2021; Clarke et al. 2011). However, time spent in police training has also been shown to have negative effects on self-reported perspective-taking (Inzunza et al. 2019) and attitudes toward offenders (Cunha et al. 2022) among police recruits. These negative trends in self-reported assessments might be due to higher self-awareness as training continues (Inzunza et al. 2019). Age has been shown to have non-significant (Akca and Eastwood 2021) or even negative effects on interviewing performance (Wachi et al. 2016; Yan et al. 2023). It is worth noting that these studies followed experienced officers with a wide range of ages (24 to 59 years old in Wachi et al. (2016) and 20 to over 50 years old in Yan et al. (2023)). In this study, we did not investigate how old the students at the Swedish training units were. Given this inconsistency between our findings and previous research, further research is needed on how previous life experiences and age affect base skills and strategies in investigative interviewing to better understand how these factors influence police training.

The Value of Interpersonal Skills for Police Work

Interpersonal skills are important in other areas of policing beyond investigative interviewing. Concepts such as social flexibility and establishing safe communicative connections have been the focus of other programs for developing policing competencies. For instance, the call for trauma-informed policing in Scotland also highlights the importance of police being able to identify and respond appropriately to vulnerability in early interactions with people when officers are called out to interact with members of the public. Similarly to our findings, the effectiveness of training trauma-informed policing also depends on officers’ personal characteristics such as age, gender, and experience (Brodie et al. 2023).

When analyzing our data, it became clear that all our informants valued communication and actively engaging with the interviewee as key skills for students to learn. However, as described, not all police students fully share these values during their training. Our informants described how some students hold the view of wanting to “save the world” and do not see interviewing as an integral part of that work. Previous research has shown that students’ perceived importance of interview training and supervisors’ perceptions and workplace attitudes play a major role in students’ willingness to engage with the training courses (Mount and Mazerolle 2020). Given that Swedish police are in the process of implementing an interviewing model based on humane and rapport-focused communication, it is important for Swedish police teachers to model and foster values that include this style of communication to promote the transfer of necessary skills.

Studies on values and practices in police recruiting have been undertaken in both Sweden and Denmark. Swedish recruitment evaluators value emotional stability, honesty, dealing with stress, and understanding the perspective of others (Inzunza 2016). When asked what could be added to or expanded upon in the recruitment process, the Swedish recruiters emphasized the importance of communicative abilities since such a large part of police work involves relationships with others (Inzunza 2016). Danish police have formalized an emphasis on communication skills and service-mindedness when recruiting (Bloksgaard and Prieur 2021). Key components in the criteria for Danish police were empathy, situational awareness, psychological balance, mental flexibility, and life experience. These skills and values are similar to what our informants highlight when describing perspective-taking, social flexibility, and situational flexibility as important skills in the context of interviewing.

Swedish and Danish police recruitments highlight the interest in recruiting trainees who already possess emotional stability and communication skills as they are important for several aspects of police work (Bloksgaard and Prieur 2021; Inzunza 2016). An important question for police training is to what extent these skills need to be exhibited at recruitment and to what extent they can be trained. The concept of emotional intelligence has been investigated within the literature on training interpersonal skills for police (Al Ali et al. 2012; Hess and Thrasher 2018; Romosiou et al. 2019). Emotional intelligence has been shown to be connected to supervisor-assessed job performance for police (Al Ali et al. 2012). Romosiou et al. (2019) found that emotional intelligence can be trained in police with higher scores for emotional intelligence, perspective-taking, empathetic concern, and resilience post-training and at a 3-month follow-up assessment. Risan et al. (2016b) suggested that interview training should include practical advice to develop higher emotional intelligence through related areas such as self-awareness, attention training, communication skills, and emotion regulation for police.

Bloksgaard and Prieur (2021) described that communication, empathy, and cooperation are difficult to tally in a field where performance is measured mainly through action and progress rapport. They argue that interpersonal skills such as perspective-taking, building rapport, and adjusting one’s interviewing approach may therefore not be given the same emphasis when highlighting what constitutes work that is central to an effective police force. These findings are echoed in our findings where our informants express that they are working with less time and fewer resources than necessary for them to achieve a higher level of interview training.

Limitations

Although this study offers novel insight into police teachers’ experiences of training in investigative interviewing, it does include several limitations that warrant attention. The interviews were conducted online which had both advantages and disadvantages (de Villiers et al. 2021). By interviewing online, we were able to recruit a wider range of informants including representation of all police education programs in Sweden. Online interviews run the risk of losing meaningful body language and intricacies in communication that are easier to pick up face-to-face (Lo Iacono et al. 2016). Given that the topic for the interviews was not sensitive, we argue that the advantage of a wider group of informants outweighs the disadvantage of missing some cues in their communication (Lo Iacono et al. 2016).

During data collection and the writing of this manuscript, we were mindful that our informants were the only experts who fit the criteria we were looking for in Sweden. It was important for us to be mindful of their anonymity so that they could not be identified personally through information shared in the interviews. For this reason, we did not ask participants about their age. We acknowledge that the age range for the participants would have been an interesting descriptive to report. We instead try to give an idea of the experience that our participants have by presenting ranges of years as police officers and years as teachers at the police education units.

The approach to thematic analysis used in the present study requires researchers to engage deeply with the data (Braun et al. 2016; Braun and Clarke 2021); the first and second authors completed the transcription, coding, and stages of thematization. The third, fourth, and fifth authors were involved in the research design as well as the discussion of the analysis process, interpretations, and implications of the results. As such, discussions among the authors were largely dependent on retellings of the analysis process and interpretations made by the first and second authors. Researcher interpretation and subjectivity are central to reflective thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2021). However, we acknowledge that not all researchers were directly involved in the thematic analytical process, yet this process of collaboration and critical discussion throughout the research process facilitated a broader understanding of the informants’ perspectives.

Conclusions

Previous research has worked toward operationalizing skills important to interviewing for the purpose of training recruits and experienced officers to hold more lucrative and professional investigative interviews (Akca et al. 2021; Collins and Carthy 2019; Gabbert et al. 2021). This study contributes to existing research by highlighting perspectives from experienced police teachers during a period of transition in the approach to conducting interviews in Sweden. Findings from the present study and previous research indicate that there is a need to understand and address the obstacles that exist in training interviewing skills to police recruits (Mount and Mazerolle 2020, 2021; Shipton 2020). This study highlights that training investigative interviewing requires adjusting pedagogical approaches to align with students’ needs and abilities. To address these demands, time and resources within police training are necessary to support recruits’ acquisition of critical interviewing skills.