The title of this could be Interview and Interrogations.  Unfortunately, in today’s language, “Interrogation” is a bad word.  In reality, Interrogations are extremely helpful in getting the truth.  To differentiate between the two techniques it’s a parallel to asking your kid “how was your day at school today” vs “so what did you and your buddies do last night.”

Interviewing seems like it might be similar to just talking to people.  If done right, that is exactly how it will come off.  The trick to Interviewing is to gather all the right information.  It may take an hour of “conversation” to gather one line of significant data called evidence.  When Agent Garrett was working Counterterrorism cases in the FBI, he would have to spend hours having a meal with whom the information lay.  Sometimes months would go by, building a relationship in order to make the interviewee comfortable enough to provide information that would help an “infidel.”  Whether it be in a Criminal Investigation or a Civil Investigation, interviewing plays an important role to gather the information needed in order to direct a defense or proceeding.  Many times the information needed will come from a source that does not have the best interest of the client in mind.

In an Interrogation, the objective is the same: to gather information, but the interviewee is more possessive of that information.  The typical Interrogation setting is where a subject is seated in a small room at a police station and he/she is being grilled by a detective.  Some settings are better than others as are the detectives.  As a Special Agent with the FBI, Agent Garrett has had numerous confessions from criminal subjects ranging from bank robbers to white collar criminals.  Through the FBI and the Reid School of Interviews and Interrogations, Agent Garrett has developed a style of interrogation that looks like an interview, but is much more intimate.  When gathering information in an Interrogation setting, the interviewer becomes like a father figure.  Instead of “beating out a confession” he coaxes it out as a way to relieve the guilt caused by this untruth.  Interviewing to gather information is a very patient endeavor.  Most interviews Agent Garrett will conduct may take approximately 90 minutes.  Some interrogations may last several days.