Investigative Interviewing Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Police investigators, Public-sector investigators and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-SLE-005

Before you join: Participants should have basic experience of workplace, security, regulatory or law-enforcement investigations, including reviewing case information and recording factual findings.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Investigative interviews determine whether an inquiry gains reliable information or creates avoidable evidential, legal and ethical problems. Investigators must obtain accurate accounts from witnesses, victims and suspects while protecting rights, avoiding contamination, recording decisions and responding appropriately to vulnerability, trauma, language needs and conflicting evidence. Poor planning, leading questions, premature challenge and incomplete records can weaken a case and damage public confidence.

This course develops structured interviewing skills for personnel conducting or supervising investigative interviews. Participants use the PEACE framework to plan, open, manage, close and evaluate interviews. They apply active listening, TED questioning, cognitive interviewing principles, strategic disclosure and evidence-based challenge. The course also addresses suspect interviews, vulnerable witnesses, interpreters, trauma-informed communication, statement analysis, chronology testing and disclosure records.

Instruction combines short technical briefings with realistic case materials, small-group planning, observed interview simulations and structured feedback. Cases can be adapted for policing, public-sector investigations, regulatory enforcement, corporate security, safeguarding and fraud inquiries. Participants produce an interview planning pack, question strategy, account-analysis tools and a personal quality-improvement plan that can be used in subsequent casework.

The course suits investigators who already conduct interviews or expect to do so as part of their role. It is particularly relevant where interviews may inform disciplinary action, criminal proceedings, regulatory decisions, safeguarding measures or intelligence development.

What you will be able to do

  • Plan investigative interviews using the PEACE framework, case theory and evidential objectives
  • Conduct rapport-based openings that explain purpose, rights, ground rules and interview process
  • Apply TED questioning and funnel sequencing to obtain clear, detailed accounts
  • Elicit witness recall using Cognitive Interview principles while reducing memory contamination
  • Test accounts through chronology analysis, clarification, corroboration and fair evidential challenge
  • Adapt interviews for vulnerable participants, children, interpreters and communication needs
  • Document interviews through contemporaneous notes, recordings, statements and disclosure records
  • Evaluate interview performance, information quality and follow-up actions against stated objectives

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence structuring interviews from preparation through evaluation
  • Stronger questioning discipline under pressure, challenge and incomplete information
  • Practical methods for obtaining fuller witness and victim accounts
  • Clearer records that explain interview decisions and evidential follow-up
  • A repeatable quality-review approach for personal interview performance

For your organisation

  • More reliable interview evidence for investigations, disciplinary decisions and referrals
  • Reduced risk from coercive, leading or poorly documented questioning
  • Better protection of vulnerable interviewees and procedural safeguards
  • Clearer links between interview accounts, corroboration and subsequent actions
  • More consistent supervisory review across investigation teams

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain the purpose, ethical boundaries and procedural safeguards of investigative interviewing.

  • Investigative interviewing purpose, roles, decision points and evidence-led case theory
  • PEACE framework: Planning, Engage and Explain, Account, Closure, Evaluation
  • PACE Code C safeguards for voluntary and detained suspect interviews
  • Information-gathering interviews distinguished from confession-seeking and accusatory questioning
  • Ethical decision-making using legality, necessity, proportionality and accountability tests
  • Disclosure, confidentiality, record handling and investigator responsibilities before interview

Participants can prepare an evidence-led interview plan with objectives, safeguards and contingencies.

  • Case theory mapped into known facts, gaps, sources and hypotheses
  • Interview objectives prioritised by evidential value, risk and time constraints
  • PEACE planning template completed with legal status and procedural safeguards
  • Disclosure strategy separates material to test from material to withhold
  • Question sequence designed around chronology, issues, exhibits and corroboration
  • Contingency plans address no comment, distress, interruption and new information

Participants can establish professional rapport and maintain constructive control throughout an interview.

  • Procedural justice behaviours establish voice, neutrality, respect and trustworthy motives
  • Engage and Explain phase sets purpose, ground rules and participant needs
  • Active listening uses minimal encouragers, paraphrase, reflection and summarising
  • Open body posture, pace and silence support voluntary account-giving
  • Rapport boundaries prevent promises, inducements, coercion and inappropriate familiarity
  • Communication adaptations account for culture, trauma, language and neurodiversity

Participants can obtain fuller witness accounts while managing memory and suggestion risks.

  • Cognitive Interview principles support context reinstatement and uninterrupted free recall
  • Context reinstatement uses sensory, environmental and emotional memory cues
  • Free narrative elicited before focused questions, prompts or challenge
  • Report everything instruction reduces witness self-editing of seemingly minor details
  • Change perspective and reverse order used cautiously to probe recall
  • Memory contamination risks identified in feedback, suggestion and repeated interviewing

Participants can use structured questioning to develop accurate, detailed and testable accounts.

  • TED questioning structures Tell, Explain and Describe prompts
  • Funnel sequencing moves from open account to clarification and closed detail
  • Probing questions test source, certainty, sequence, opportunity and perception
  • Neutral wording avoids assumptions, labels, leading language and forced choices
  • Conversation management recovers focus after digression, emotion or interruption
  • Summaries check accuracy, invite correction and create transition points

Participants can manage suspect interviews fairly while testing explanations against available evidence.

  • Suspect interview objectives balance account-gathering, safeguards and investigative opportunities
  • Legal caution and rights explained using clear, checkable language
  • Account phase invites uninterrupted explanation before evidential challenge
  • Strategic disclosure tests explanations without revealing unnecessary case information
  • Challenge sequences put contradictions fairly, specifically and with supporting material
  • No-comment responses managed through planned questions, exhibits and accurate recording

Participants can adapt interview arrangements and communication for vulnerable or assisted interviewees.

  • Achieving Best Evidence principles guide interviews with vulnerable witnesses
  • Communication needs assessed through intermediaries, support persons and reasonable adjustments
  • Ground rules establish truth, uncertainty, correction and interviewer fallibility
  • Child-friendly language avoids developmental assumptions, pressure and adult terminology
  • Trauma-informed pacing recognises distress without treating trauma as proof
  • Interpreter briefings preserve question meaning, turn-taking and verbatim translation

Participants can analyse interview accounts and identify proportionate evidential follow-up actions.

  • Statement analysis separates observation, inference, assumption and unsupported conclusion
  • Chronology matrices compare accounts, records, digital data and physical evidence
  • Clarification questions distinguish omission, ambiguity, inconsistency and deliberate deception
  • Alternative hypotheses tested before drawing conclusions from interview behaviour
  • Reality monitoring indicators considered cautiously alongside independent corroboration
  • Investigative actions assigned from new leads, admissions and evidential gaps

Participants can create accurate interview records suitable for review, disclosure and case decisions.

  • Contemporaneous notes capture questions, answers, demeanour and material interruptions
  • Audio-video recording requirements protect accuracy, fairness and later review
  • Interview statements structured around account, clarification, exhibits and confirmations
  • Verbatim quotations distinguished from interviewer summaries and interpretive comments
  • Disclosure schedules identify unused material, sensitive material and retention decisions
  • Evaluation records assess objectives, information quality and required follow-up

Participants can evaluate interview quality and establish targeted improvements for future casework.

  • PEACE evaluation reviews interview performance, evidence gained and unresolved issues
  • Self-assessment uses observable behaviours, question ratios and listening indicators
  • Supervisor feedback framed through facts, impact and specific next actions
  • Interview plans revised after case developments, legal advice and new evidence
  • Personal action plan sets practice targets, observation requests and review dates
  • Quality assurance checks link interview records to policy and casefile standards

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. PEACE interview planning template
  2. TED questioning prompt card
  3. Witness account chronology matrix
  4. Strategic disclosure decision checklist
  5. Interview record and evaluation form
  6. Personal interview quality-improvement plan

Who should attend

  • Police investigators — need defensible methods for witness, victim and suspect interviews
  • Public-sector investigators — gather reliable accounts for misconduct, fraud and regulatory inquiries
  • Corporate security investigators — conduct fair internal investigations with documented evidence
  • Financial crime investigators — test explanations and follow money-trail evidence systematically
  • Safeguarding officers — obtain accounts sensitively from vulnerable adults and young people
  • Investigation supervisors — review interview quality, legality and evidential follow-up

Skills and tools covered

Interview planningRapport buildingEvidence-led questioningWitness memory retrievalAccount testingInterview documentation

Tools and standards

PEACE framework, Cognitive Interview, PACE Code C, Achieving Best Evidence

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish interview principles, legal safeguards and decision points. Participants analyse case files, prepare interview plans, build question sequences and assess written accounts against records and evidence. Structured simulations cover witness, vulnerable-person and suspect interviews, followed by observation-based feedback on rapport, listening, questioning, challenge and documentation. Group discussion examines difficult decisions such as distress, no-comment responses and disclosure. Each participant completes an application plan for improving interview practice after the course.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic experience of workplace, security, regulatory or law-enforcement investigations, including reviewing case information and recording factual findings. They should understand their employer's authority to interview, reporting routes and confidentiality requirements. Familiarity with local criminal procedure, evidence rules or disciplinary policy is helpful because these rules shape interview safeguards. No prior formal interviewing qualification, psychology degree or specialist forensic training is required. The course does not replace jurisdiction-specific legal advice, mandatory safeguarding instruction or organisational authorisation to conduct interviews.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should understand basic investigative work, such as reviewing information, identifying issues and documenting findings. No formal interviewing qualification is required, but the course is designed for people with some investigation-related responsibility.

Bring your organisation's interview policy, note-taking format or recording requirements if you can share them appropriately. Do not bring live case files, personal data or restricted evidence unless your employer has approved their use.

It is suited to investigators in policing, public bodies, regulatory teams, corporate security, financial crime, safeguarding and internal investigations. Supervisors who review interviews will also benefit from the evaluation and quality-assurance content.

This course is built around information gathering, fairness, procedural safeguards and evidence testing rather than confession-seeking tactics. It develops methods for obtaining reliable accounts that can withstand supervisory, legal and evidential review.

Participants leave with planning, questioning, account-analysis and evaluation tools that can be adapted to their own procedures. They can use these tools before their next interview and during post-interview case reviews.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between method briefings, case analysis, planning work, interview simulations, feedback and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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