Police Only Planning To Record End Of Suspect Interrogations

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Critics blast first partial police recording of confession
Chiba prefectural police recorded part of the interrogation of a criminal suspect Tuesday on a trial basis, the first police organization to do so. But critics said the partial recording will do nothing to stop police from resorting to inappropriate questioning to coerce confessions out of suspects... Chiba prefectural police recorded about 20 minutes of the questioning process of a male suspect from 11 a.m. Tuesday at a police station. The man was arrested on the spot on suspicion of rape and inflicting injuries...The DVD recording showed: an investigator reading out a written confession from the suspect; the suspect signing and giving a thumb print on the paper; and the investigator asking if the suspect had anything to add... Lawyers and those wrongly charged said the partial taping does not make clear the process that led to the confession and will fail to prevent improper questioning by law enforcement authorities...A senior NPA official said full recordings would have a detrimental effect on investigations...more...

[wuchan]

A senior NPA official said full recordings would have a detrimental effect on investigations

A senior NPA official said full recordings would force NPA officers to use real investigative methods which would result higher stress levels caused by reduced time ogling girls while standing in front of the koban.

A senior NPA official said "What? A 99.9% conviction ratio is not normal? You mean there is more to police work than beating the shit out of people?"

I always wondered why J-cops never used the shoot first, ask questions later method.

[Behan]

I always wondered why J-cops never used the shoot first, ask questions later method.

That would save a lot of interrogation time. Maybe they cut could make EZ-shooting report forms, too.

But, seriously, they don't want the interrogations recorded because it will get out how they intimidate and try to coerce confessions.

[Greji]

But, seriously, they don't want the interrogations recorded because it will get out how they intimidate and try to coerce confessions.

Mochiron! When they beat that dude with a mop handle 'till his tongue pops out like a cash register drawer and he immediately confesses to any and all crimes upon request, that is a unique investigative technique that they certainly wouldn't want out on DVD.

[Behan]

Mochiron! When they beat that dude with a mop handle 'till his tongue pops out like a cash register drawer and he immediately confesses to any and all crimes upon request, is a unique investigative technique that they certainly wouldn't want out on DVD.

I guess it wasn't an interrogation, but didn't some prison guards kill a man by applying a high pressure hose to his backside?

[Greji]

I guess it wasn't an interrogation, but didn't some prison guards kill a man by applying a high pressure hose to his backside?

I think the word you were searching for was "cramming," not applying....

[Samurai_Jerk]

I have a feeling the videos will look a little something like this:

[yt]7KM1ukwBGv4[/yt]

[Mike Oxlong]

The Case For Videotaping Interrogations

I've been a police officer for 25 years, and I never understood why someone would admit to a crime he or she didn't commit. Until I secured a false confession in a murder case.

I stepped into the interrogation room believing that we had evidence linking the suspect to the murder of a 34-year-old federal employee in Washington. I used standard, approved interrogation techniques -- no screaming or threats, no physical abuse, no 12-hour sessions without food or water. Many hours later, I left with a solid confession.

At first, the suspect couldn't tell us anything about the murder, and she professed her innocence. As the interrogation progressed, she became more cooperative, and her confession included many details of the crime. The suspect said she had beaten the man to death and dumped his body by a river. She said she made purchases with the victim's credit card and tried to withdraw cash using his ATM card. Surveillance video from the ATM showed a woman who resembled the suspect, and an expert said the signature on the credit card receipts was consistent with the suspect's handwriting.

Even the suspect's attorney later told me that she believed her client was guilty, based on the confession. Confident in our evidence and the confession, we charged her with first-degree murder.

Then we discovered that the suspect had an ironclad alibi. We subpoenaed sign-in/sign-out logs from the homeless shelter where she lived, and the records proved that she could not have committed the crime. The case was dismissed, but all of us still believed she was involved in the murder. After all, she had confessed.

Even though it wasn't our standard operating procedure in the mid-1990s, when the crime occurred, we had videotaped the interrogation in its entirety. Reviewing the tapes years later, I saw that we had fallen into a classic trap. We ignored evidence that our suspect might not have been guilty, and during the interrogation we inadvertently fed her details of the crime that she repeated back to us in her confession.

If we hadn't discovered and verified the suspect's alibi -- or if we hadn't recorded the interrogation -- she probably would have been convicted of first-degree murder and would be in prison today. The true perpetrator of the crime was never identified, partly because the investigation was derailed when we focused on an innocent person.



The case was a turning point for me, personally and professionally. I still work as a police officer in Washington, but I also teach a class on interrogations and false confessions, and I work with law enforcement agencies nationwide to help them prevent false confessions...

...more.

[Behan]

The Case For Videotaping Interrogations



...more.

Interesting article, Mike.

Perhaps people who aren't beaten can still be intimidated enought to give a false confession. But it's nice to know at least one police officer is aware that people might make false confessions.

[kurohinge1]

Police Only Planning To Record End Of Suspect Interrogations . . .

"Suspect Interrogations" indeed.

Q: Have you ever seen a police eggbeater?
A: There's no such thing - the egg must've "fallen down the stairs".

[Greji]

The Case For Videotaping Interrogations
".....The true perpetrator of the crime was never identified....."

Damn. It's a good thing they weren't Japanese dectives. Letting a good case go unresolved when they had a perfectly good confession. Put her a way for 20 to life first and then work on the case to find the real perp at your leisure later. They would have been reprimanded, or fired if they were JNP....

[Behan]

Just my amateur opinion, but if the Japanese police and prosecutors get it in their minds that an innocent person is guilty, they are f*cked.

Do you know if wrongly convicted people have gotten any decent kind of compensation. You can just be they have had their careers ruined.

[Mulboyne]

I think someone has stolen my English comprehension skills: I really don't understand parts of this Yomiuri report:

The Justice Ministry said Friday it would be difficult to introduce full audio and video recording in all criminal interrogations. The ministry has been studying the feasibility of making audio or video recordings of all interrogations in criminal cases conducted by both police and public prosecutors, but the ministry says it will study the possibility of recording only parts of the interrogation process, according to an interim report. The report was compiled by a ministry study group formed in October that included Justice Minister Keiko Chiba.

According to the report, 75 percent of cases prosecutors deal with each year are traffic-related issues that involve death or injury through negligence or violations of the Road Traffic Law, and only 6 percent of these cases are brought to court. Since the question of whether a suspect's statements are voluntary or not is not questioned in many cases, the group concluded it would be too much of a burden to fully record all interrogations. The report also said suspects may hesitate to tell the truth if interrogations are recorded out of fear of revenge. Full recordings will also make it difficult for investigators to get statements by building a relationship of trust with a suspect.

The ministry now plans to study the possibility of implementing partial recordings, and to study for more than one year which parts of the interrogations and kinds of cases are suitable for recording, by surveying how interrogations are carried out in Japan and other countries. The report says the ministry will consider introducing new investigation methods to acquire objective evidence to deal with the impact of the recording requirements.

Full recording of all interrogations was part of the campaign platform of the Democratic Party of Japan for last year's House of Representatives election, with the aim of preventing wrongful convictions.

[Yokohammer]

I think someone has stolen my English comprehension skills: I really don't understand parts of this Yomiuri report:

What a load of double-speak. But I think I can translate it for you.

It means "we are currently working on ways to appear as though we are carrying out fair, unbiased interrogations by recording only those parts of the process that suit us, while actually employing physical and psychological torture to extract forced confessions in the same way we always have. We have to maintain our conviction ratio at 99%, you see, otherwise we lose face."