Suspects Behaving Badly, How to Mitigate the Risks

While you continue to do your rapport-based interviews, never forget the interviewee may try to punch you in the face, escape, or hurt themselves. Anything can happen in the interview room. We spend most of our time thinking about how to get truthful information from people that have a reason not to share it. These stratagems can become increasingly psychological. We must not forget the dangerous, physical side of the interview room as well. Awareness, monitoring, and taking seriously preparatory actions can mitigate these risks.

In a recent interview, I was working through a challenging series of lies and half-truths when the interviewee stood up. His hands were clenched. My first instinct was to attempt to interpret his actions in the context of our conversation. Maybe he was trying to demonstrate something? I was in rapport-based interview mode rather than danger assessment mode. Once my brain clicked on the clenched fists, I realized there was a better than average chance he was considering hitting me in the face. In response I got my feet underneath myself and I asked, “Are you thinking about hitting me?” He said no, he was just straightening his pants and sat back down.

I think he was considering assaulting me. I interrupted his preparation by pointing out what he was doing, which caused him to abort his plan. I did this without being aggressive and all in a way that made it easy to re-establish rapport.

A few hours later, I was surprised when this same interviewee tried to escape through the ceiling. I was pulling the car around to drive him to jail. My backup officers walked in to find him reaching for the ceiling tiles while teetering on a chair on the desk. They brought him out to the car, and they told me what had happened. I immediately recalled that while I was out of the room, I saw him on the video get up and try the door handle. I was upset with myself for discounting the action. I turned to him and said, “I thought we were cool, man.” He said, “Wasn’t personal.” He agreed I had treated him well, but he said he’d prefer to not be in jail.

There are things we can learn from this escape attempt. First, the interviewee should be monitored at all times whether in custody or not. We had a gap of a few minutes when nobody was actively watching. I was getting the car. My partners were getting handcuffs and body worn cameras for transport. That’s all he needed to make his attempt. Second, don’t discount any observed preparatory attempts. His standing up with hands clenched was probably a preparatory action for assault. I addressed that and defused it. His trying the door handle was definitely a preparatory attempt for escape. I didn’t address that, and it escalated.

Years earlier, a man escaped out of our Organized Crime Division offices. He had been left in an unlocked room. That was the first mistake. The second mistake: his video feed wasn’t being monitored. It was quite the shock when one of the detectives walked by the video monitor to see an empty room. A frantic manhunt found him half a mile away. Nobody wants to be the one that let a guy escape.

I almost lost an arrestee about ten years ago. I had him riding in the front seat of my unmarked car. As I pulled up to the sally port door, he reached behind himself to unbuckle his seatbelt. I remember thinking, “I guess he’s ready to get into jail and get on with it.” Then, I saw him throw the door open and take off running. With a little bit of luck and a taser, I was able to get him back into custody. This case fits into the broader conversation because it demonstrates how preparatory actions should never be discounted.

Here is a video where a suspect successfully escaped through the ceiling:

The police chief in the press conference said it all, “We did have a live feed, but nobody was monitoring.”

Here is a video of a suspect wasting no time in lifting the window and diving out of the interview room:

What can we learn from that?

The potential for violence doesn’t stop just because you are out of the room. I had a man pick up a chair, stand in the corner, and prepare to hit me with the chair as I re-entered. Luckily, our detectives did their job in monitoring the situation, and they were able to warn me before I went back in. It took about an hour of negotiation through the door, but we were able to get him in handcuffs without anybody being hurt. Now we have video screens outside of the room so we can see what the situation is before we walk in.

The violence can be directed towards themselves as much as it can be directed towards the officer. About ten years ago, I saw a woman try to hang herself in the interview room. She was picked up in a large operation that had people moving in a lot of different directions, downloading weapons and gear, weighing dope, and counting cash. There was one monitor that looked into the interview room. The officer stepped away to take care of some task or other. When he came back, he saw the interviewee had a shirt tied around the soundproofing board with a noose tied at the end. Everybody ran to intervene, and nothing bad happened. The point is, it can happen. Prevention, like the escape attempts, is handled by more careful monitoring.

How should we monitor the interviewee? If you have video monitoring, make sure that somebody is watching them, especially when you aren’t in the room. If you are the person watching them, and you have to leave, you must affirmatively hand the responsibility off to somebody else. “Somebody watch this guy” isn’t good enough. Find a person, make sure they have the interview pulled up, and make sure they know they are responsible to watch. If the room you are using isn’t equipped with audio and video, you may have to place an officer in the room with them.

The purpose of this article is to re-center in the interviewer’s mind the possibility for bad things to happen. Even though the interviewee may be calm on the outside, many of them may be feeling desperate. We must be alert for the possibility that desperate people will do desperate things. Continue to prioritize rapport building. Be as pleasant as you can be, but never forget that violence or escape is a possibility. Always monitor your interviewee. Never discount preparatory actions. Stay safe out there.