The Unfair Psychology Behind Police Interrogations

Why does anyone confess to the police? While a plea bargain in court might lower your punishment, confessing to police can only hurt you. Yet people do it all the time.

What did you do? I killed Bridget Harrison and Caleb Harrison.

Guilty or wrongfully accused, an officer's first step in an interrogation is to pretend they're your ally. So before mentioning anything about the case, police will try to build rapport by bringing you something to drink or bonding over commonalities. The goal is to make you feel relaxed and unthreatened. Watch this next clip. You would never guess from his behavior that the detective already has hard evidence that the guy in front of him is a murderer.

I'm a big coffee guy. I don't know if you're a coffee guy or not. I didn't want to drink in front of you, so.

No, I appreciate that.

All right.

Go ahead, Russell. Just to avoid any confusion, because people do get confused when they're talked to by the police, is that you're obviously not under arrest here today. Okay? Anytime you feel you want to leave here, you feel free to do so. The door's not locked. Theresa will walk you down the lobby anytime you want.

Okay? Once they've built rapport with you, the next step is what police call a positive confrontation. They tell you they already know you're guilty and they just want to know why you did it. This is where things get interesting. Whether it's true or not, interrogators will tell you they have so much evidence that your guilt isn't in doubt. This can involve legally lying to you about fake witnesses, fingerprints, DNA, or video footage. In this next clip, an officer tries to get a confession from an innocent man. Notice the confusion and doubt that starts to creep in when he's faced with false evidence.

There's a number. A number of witnesses. Great. One of whom had a video camera. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. So view the video camera I have.

Okay.

That's why your guilt isn't an issue here. That doesn't even make sense to me, because if I'm on the video camera.

While faking evidence is extremely effective at getting guilty people to confess, it can unfortunately result in innocent people confessing as well. One of the more heartbreaking examples of this is Marty Tankleff. At 17 years old, Marty woke up and found his mother stabbed to death and his father bleeding and unconscious. Marty called 911 after bringing him in as a suspect and interrogating him for hours without success. An officer lied to Marty that his father had woken up and identified him as the attacker. Marty knew he was innocent, but didn't realize that police can lie during an interrogation. So suddenly, he started to doubt himself, thinking maybe he did it while in a blackout. Martin Marty then gave a false confession that he immediately took back, saying he was coerced while in a state of shock. But that confession led to his conviction, and he spent 17 years in prison before being deemed innocent and set free. Part of the reason these positive confrontations are so effective is because the police are trained to speak with complete certainty when presenting the evidence to you. In this next clip, police are looking for a missing woman. They're interrogating a co worker who claimed he hadn't seen her the day she disappeared. Listen to how the officer's tone conveys no doubt about whether or not the missing woman was caught on camera in this guy's car.

Okay, well, tell us when you left with her in the car, because that is what is shown. We can't make up that we can't falsify a video camera. Lee, I'm not lying to you because you know I'm telling the truth, because you know that's what's on the video.

Now, in this case, the video camera was real, but they had no way of proving the missing girl got into his car, just a car that looked like it might be his. Yet, because the detective says it with such conviction, he confesses that he's been lying to police and admits he was the last person seen with the missing woman. Ultimately, this led to him confessing to police that he murdered her. Because this confrontation with evidence is often the first time you'll realize you're a serious suspect. It's very common for people to push back and deny their guilt. This is where the next psychological trick comes into play. Police interrogators shut down denials immediately before you can even state them. This pattern interrupt makes sure you don't build up confidence in your ability to stand up for yourself. Here's a quick example.

I did not have a firearm in my hand. We can prove that. We're beyond that point, buddy. We're beyond that man.

The goal is to create the feeling that there's nothing you can do to convince them you're completely innocent. Here's another example. Notice the cutoff comes as soon as the man tries to deny hurting his missing family.

I don't know how much I could.

Tell you right now, like, I did not.

It's not even an option right now since you did not pass the polygraph. So I know you were being deceptive. So that's not even an issue right now. The issue right now is what happened to Shanann, Bella, and Celeste.

Now that you're feeling trapped, beaten down, and hopeless, the next step is to give you a way out of this mess. With minimization, the goal here is to get you to confess by minimizing the perceived evil of the crime. One way to do this is to say that you did what anyone would have done in your situation. Watch officer George Burch explain how this alone can get a confession.

I had a sexual assault case. I had to talk to the guy, how hot the woman was, and I understand where he was coming from and when that. When I said that we were buds, and he started talking to me, and he's still sitting in prison.

Another trick is to let you think there's a chance you can shape the story that gets out. Believe it or not, the questions you're about to see are what finally convince this man to confess to murder.

When stuff gets out that you guys left and all that together and all that stuff, you want people to remember you as a guy who said, okay, look, I'm gonna do the right thing. Or do you want your family and everybody else to think that you're some evil, heartless person who won't tell us where she is? Please tell me where to go. Finder. That's how people remember you.

During this minimization process, police will often use what they call alternative questions. Basically, they'll present you with a story where you're guilty of the crime, but in a way that's more sympathetic or justifiable. Returning to the case of Chris Watts. His wife and two daughters are missing, and he's already failed a lie detector. Watch how the interrogator first tries to minimize the crime as a mistake and then poses an alternative question to make Chris feel like he can confess without being the bad guy.

We have no doubt you love these girls with all of your heart. I have no doubt, but we make mistakes. Not to all three of them. I did not do anything against kids.

Not to anything.

What did she need to do? Tell us, Chris. Chicks are crazy. Can I talk to my dad or something?

Chris desperately wants to get out of this interrogation, and he latches on to the idea that he can lie and say his wife was hurting his kids.

I forgot.

Just like that, the police have him confessing on tape for murder. You may think this is actually smart of Chris, because at least he's only getting convicted for one murder instead of three. But in reality, his minimized confession hasn't Done his case any favors because the police don't actually buy it.

Are you okay with the public knowing that? Shenanigans?

Yes, because I did not have these girls. Chris, I'm not sure minimizing a crime during an interrogation is very effective at getting the guilty to confess in hopes of a less harsh penalty. Unfortunately, it can also be effective on the innocent. Here's an example that isn't as clear cut as Chris Watts. This man says he's innocent. The police say he's guilty. He's being accused of shooting a police officer. After seven hours of telling the police he didn't do it and being told he's lying, you can imagine how this alternative story suddenly becomes appealing.

It could have. It could have been a fucking accident. It could have been an accidental discharge, okay? But when you don't, when you're completely denying that, then. Then I got to think another way, bro. Now we need to know if you try to kill that deputy or did you just discharge a firearm and that's the misdemeanor?

Imagine that's you. The police have thrown a mountain of real or fake evidence against you, told you they're absolutely certain you're guilty and. And shut you down instantly. Whenever you try to deny it. You feel like everything is stacked against you and fear you'll get wrongfully convicted for shooting a police officer. Then the interrogating officer tells you that confessing is your way out of this mess. With as little penalty as possible. It's suddenly easy to understand why police are phenomenal at getting criminals to confess. Unfortunately, it's also easy to see why some innocent people falsely confess. If you want to learn more about false confessions and the dangers of talking to police even if you're innocent, I highly recommend you check out Professor James Duane's audiobook. You have the Right to Remain Innocent, which you can get for free thanks to our sponsor for this video audible. It really hammers home why you should always get a lawyer if the police call you in for questioning. One of the lessons from Professor Duane is that even if you don't confess, police will try to get you on the record with seemingly harmless details so that they can potentially use them against you later. For example, he shares the story of a man who told police that an ex girlfriend of his lived in a certain neighborhood, and that piece of information, voluntarily shared, got him falsely imprisoned for 20 years for a rape it turned out he did not commit. You have the Right to Remain Innocent has a number of incredible and shocking stories of people being imprisoned for a variety of small things they said or did while being interrogated. You can get it for free by going to audible.com charisma or texting charisma to 500 500. Audible is my favorite audiobook platform and something I personally use all the time. It's a great way to take time that's normally dead time, like doing errands around the house, and transform it into productive time where you're learning and improving yourself. By joining Audible, you get a credit every month to use on any title in their premium selection, regardless of price. You also get access to their plus catalog with thousands of titles you can listen to for free. Again, if you want to try it out, you can go to audible.com charisma or text Charisma to 500500 and get a free 30 day trial including any audiobook you want. One other quick note. A lot of the interrogations I studied to make this video seem to follow something called the Reid Technique. If you want to watch the Reid Technique being used in full length interrogations, I recommend the YouTube channel JCS Criminal Psychology. Either way, I hope you liked this video. I want to thank our video editor Therese for working so hard to edit it. Thank you so much for watching and hopefully we'll see you in the next one.