For the usual weird writing reasons, I’ve been looking up interrogation techniques on the web. (Why does a writer look up interrogation? Because they need to.) Interrogation has been lurking in the back of my mind for a couple of weeks now because there was a long article in The New Yorker about the TV show 24 and how it shows scenes of interrogation through torture. Apparently, torture is a lousy way to get good intelligence, and the military is actually unhappy about the show because they think it has contributed to problems in the way prisoners are treated in Iraq. Hard not to wonder about that.

Also not so surprising, there is an article about interrogation on wikipedia. It talks about the Reid technique of interrogation. I carefully copied out the steps of the Reid technique and set off writing my scene, and almost instantly, I had a cop in my head. I could hear the cop. I could imagine what the cop looked like. He looked like…Brass.

And that was when I realized that whoever is the technical adviser on CSI has trained the writing staff because Brass, the detective, pretty much whips through the Reid technique every time he interrogates a suspect. Now the Reid technique can take hours, and Brass does it in about four minutes, but it’s all there. All nine steps.

• Step 1 – Tell the suspect that there is overwhelming evidence, even witnesses, of their guilt. This may be a lie to force the suspect towards confession.

• Step 2 – Try to shift the blame away from the suspect to some other person or set of circumstances that prompted the suspect to commit the crime. That is, develop themes containing reasons that will justify or excuse the crime. Themes may be developed or changed to find one to which the accused is most responsive.

• Step 3 – Never allow the suspect to deny guilt. Reid training video: “If you’ve let him talk and say the words ‘I didn’t do it’, and the more often a person says ‘I didn’t do it’, the more difficult it is to get a confession.” Stopping them talking also stops them asking for a lawyer.

• Step 4 – At this point, the accused will often give a reason why he or she did not or could not commit the crime. Try to use this to move towards the confession.

• Step 5 – Reinforce sincerity to ensure that the suspect is receptive.

• Step 6 – The suspect will become quieter and listen. Move the theme discussion towards offering alternatives. If the suspect cries at this point, infer guilt.

• Step 7 – Pose the “alternative question”, giving two choices for what happened; one more socially acceptable than the other. The suspect is expected to choose the easier option but whichever alternative the suspect chooses, guilt is admitted.

• Step 8 – Lead the suspect to repeat the admission of guilt in front of witnesses.

• Step 9 – Document the suspect’s admission and have them sign as a confession.

I like CSI, but it often makes me crazy. They do a test to see when a bus tire would blow, using just one bus, and no control conditions, and the test works. DNA results are ready in minutes. And the police don’t actually do much except whatever crime scene investigators tell them (which is actually the inverse of how an investigation actually works.) But they do use recognized forensic techniques, and they do, it turns out, use recognized law enforcement techniques of interrogation.

I think my now 22 year old kid should just be glad I didn’t do this research when he was, I dunno, eleven.

Okay, I know everybody has heard this song already. It’s all over the place. I’m not posting it to point you toward something obscure.

The damn thing has been stuck in my head off and on for over a month. If I can mess you up that way, too, I’ll feel better.

Just click the pic and get it over with.

Amy Winehouse – ‘They Tried to Make Me Go to Rehab‘.

I think the thing that makes this song so compelling is how she absolutely owns the beat. Listen to her phrasing and notice how she plays with it to suit herself. That’s damn hard to do.