In-Person Investigative Interview Skills Development
Evidence-based investigative interviewing programs
for law enforcement, military, intelligence, and first responder professionals.
Stan’s work is centered on solving the problem of outdated investigative interview methods
that sabotage investigations.
Why Agencies Bring Stan In
Effective skills building isn’t defined by tradition or intuition —
it’s defined by whether the methods produce reliable, defensible results.
Every course I teach is audited against current peer-reviewed
published scientific research before it is presented.
Skills Enhancement Program Options
2.5–Day Course: Mastering Investigative Interviews
Mastering Investigative Interviews:
Essential Skills for Investigators and First Responders
Course Overview
The most dangerous interviewing practices are often the ones investigators do not realize are working against them. Outdated methods, unsupported assumptions, poor questioning, and premature judgments about deception can contaminate statements, reduce the amount of information obtained, alienate victims and witnesses, and undermine otherwise strong investigations.
Mastering Investigative Interviews: Information, Reliability & Influence prepares investigators to replace those practices with practical, evidence-based methods designed to produce more complete, reliable, and defensible information.
Participants learn how to structure narrative-based interviews that allow victims, witnesses, and suspects to provide fuller accounts before interviewer assumptions begin shaping the statement. The course develops practical skills for recovering additional information, improving follow-up questions, recognizing interviewer-created contamination, evaluating statement reliability without relying on unsupported deception cues, and avoiding practices associated with false or unreliable admissions.
Participants also learn how to recognize common subject response patterns and distinguish ethical influence and persuasion from manipulation and coercion.
The outcome is better information, stronger statement reliability, more effective investigative decisions, and interviews that can withstand supervisory, investigative, and courtroom scrutiny.
Course Outcomes
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Conduct more effective narrative-based interviews that produce fuller, more reliable accounts.
- Recover more relevant information without contaminating the subject’s statement.
- Evaluate statement reliability without relying on unsupported deception cues or behavioral myths.
- Recognize and prevent interviewer errors that contribute to contamination, unreliable admissions, and false confessions.
- Apply ethical influence and persuasion while adapting to common subject response patterns.
Cognitive Reliability Framework™ (CRF):
The goal is not to detect deception. The goal is to confirm credibility.
4.5–Day Level 1 & 2 Course: Mastering Investigative Interviews.
Mastering Investigative Interviews:
Advanced Application for Investigators and First Responders
Course Overview
The most dangerous interviewing practices are often the ones investigators do not realize are working against them. Outdated methods, unsupported assumptions, poor questioning, and premature judgments about deception can contaminate statements, reduce the amount of information obtained, alienate victims and witnesses, and undermine otherwise strong investigations.
Mastering Investigative Interviews: Information, Reliability & Influence provides an expanded, application-intensive approach to investigative interviewing. Building on evidence-based interviewing principles, participants develop the skills necessary to obtain more complete information, evaluate statement reliability, recognize interviewer-created contamination, and adapt their approach as the interview develops.
Participants learn to structure narrative-based interviews, recover additional information through effective follow-up, evaluate inconsistencies and gaps without relying on unsupported deception cues, and use evidence strategically while protecting the integrity of the subject’s account.
The extended format allows greater emphasis on practical application, interview strategy, and adaptive influence. Participants examine common subject response patterns and learn how ethical influence and persuasion can be adjusted to different personalities and interview dynamics without crossing into manipulation or coercion.
Participants also apply these principles through structured exercises and practical interviewing scenarios designed to strengthen judgment, questioning, information management, and real-time decision-making.
The outcome is not simply better interviewing technique. It is better information, stronger statement reliability, more effective investigative decisions, and interviews that can withstand supervisory, investigative, and courtroom scrutiny.
Course Outcomes
Advanced Interview Strategy, Influence & Adaptation
- How to adapt interview strategy to the subject, evidence, and developing information
- How to apply the Influence–Persuasion model to different personality types to increase cooperation without compromising statement reliability
- How to distinguish reaction behaviors from strategic influence attempts
- How to maintain control of the interview – without coercion, dominance, or contamination
- How to align interview strategy with the subject’s cognitive and emotional state to improve information recovery and reliability
Level 3 & 4 Advanced Practical Course: Mastering Investigative Interviews
Level 3 & 4
Mastering Investigative Interviews:
Advanced Practical Course For Investigators and First Responders
**Prior Attendance in Level 1 & 2 is Mandatory**
Inside the Interview – Real-World Application Under Pressure
This hands-on course takes you beyond the classroom and into real-world interviews. You’ll work with high-risk and complex personalities, apply advanced interview strategies under pressure, and conduct live interviews in a correctional setting.
The focus is not just on what to do—but how to diagnose what’s happening in the interview in real time, apply the Cognitive Reliability Framework™ (CRF) under pressure, and protect the reliability of the information you obtain.
Course Outcomes
- Identify and engage high-risk and complex personality types.
- Respond to resistance, manipulation, and shifting subject behavior in real time
- Maintain control of interview dynamics under pressure without coercion or contamination
- Apply interview strategies effectively in real-world correctional environments
- What works — and what fails — during live inmate interviews
- Build confidence through real-time feedback—from peers and the subjects you interview
Cognitive Reliability Framework™ (CRF) in Practice:
In this course, the framework is not just taught—it is tested, applied, and refined through real-time interviews, feedback, and live analysis.
The goal is not to detect deception.
The goal is to confirm credibility.