Training
Two courses are available to meet your training needs, these can be provided separately as individual courses or combined into one holistic package. Alternatively, different aspects of the courses can be emphasised or removed depending on your specific organisational requirements.
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The two available courses are "Interviewing Informants" and "The Psychology of Covert Tradecraft". These courses have been uniquely designed based upon my own personal research and experience. Please do not hesitate to get in touch for further information.
Interviewing Informants:
Applying the RWITS-US Interview Model
A Need for Change
Why we need a model for interviewing informants
The Mendez Principles - or The Principles on Effective Interviewing for Investigation and Information Gathering - provide a standard of scientifically proven and human rights compliant principles that ought to be employed whenever a member of the State "interviews" a member of the public. The definition of an "interview" is deliberately wide ranging and includes any interaction designed to obtain or elicit information. This would include any engagement with a registered informant (or CHIS). One of the Principles is that these interactions ought to follow a structured approach. Consequently, an interview model ought to be used when interacting with informants.
What's wrong with existing models?
A number of scientifically proven investigative interview models already exist, such as the Cognitive Interview or the PEACE model. However, these models were primarily designed to capture information of evidential value from witnesses and suspects. As such, they do not accomodate some of the unique considerations facing an informant's handler, including the development of long term relational rapport, obtaining social information about known associates and tasking the informant to gather further information of value.
A Bespoke Informant Interviewing Model
The RWITS-US Model
The RWITS-US Informant Interviewing Model has been specifically designed and scientifically tested for interviewing informants. RWITS-US is a mnemonic covering seven stages of the model and can be remembered by the axiom: Keeping Our Wits about Us. The seven stages are:
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Review and Research: Review previous contacts and Research any changes in the informants circumstances;
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Welfare: Use a Welfare enquiry to re-establish and build rapport;
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Information: Obtain Information by prompting and probing a gossip narrative;
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Tasking: Provide the informant with a relevant narrative when Tasking them to obtain more information.
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Security: Re-enforce any necessary Security protocols when closing the interview;
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Understand Context: Following the interview seek to corroborate or disprove the informant's account, employ narrative analysis to look for possible signs of deceit;
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Sharing: Ensure that the intelligence obtained is appropriately Shared so that it can be properly actioned.
The Psychology of Covert Tradecraft:
Observing Strategy Consistent Behaviours in Person and on the Plot
Gut Instinct and Confirmation Bias
Gut Instinct
Police put a lot of faith in gut instinct, but what is it? Gut instinct is an evolved response to environmental stimulus, but humans did not evolve in dense urban environments, therefore, relying on gut instinct is prone to error.
Confirmation Bias
We tend to remember things that confirm our prior beliefs and our preferred self-image. We can all remember occasions when our "gut" was proven correct, but not those times that we got it wrong. But more often than not, we will have been wrong - who has 100% stop and search record?
Using Strategy Consistent Behaviours
Stress Consistent Behvaiours
Practitioners were previously told to observe behaviours associated with increased stress, as these were thought to be indicative of deceit. However, there is no psychological theory to explain any link between deception, stress and particular behaviours and those who have been trained to observe stress consistent behaviours are worse at identifying deceit than untrained lay persons.
Understanding Points of Vulnerability
The first stage of observing hostile operators is learning to understand what makes you vulnerable. How can they identify you as a person of interest? Is it due to an online association or your attendance at a target location? Once they've identified you, what can they learn about you, and how can they use this against you?
Observing Strategy Consistent Behaviours
Perspective taking allows us to consider the different strategies that hostile operatives are likely to employ. Once we understand their strategic approach we are able to observe behaviours that are consistent with this strategy. This approach can be employed in both interpersonal interactions and tradecraft scenarios.
Observing Hostile Tradecraft
Understanding Surveillance Strategies
How do surveillance officers operate? What are their objectives and what tactics do they employ? Once we understand the answers to these questions we can predict how they will respond in certain situations.
Anti- and Counter- Surveillance
Having predicted how surveillance operatives are likely to respond we can force them into specific situations and observe for predicted behaviours.
Interpersonal Deception
Theories of Interpersonal Deception
Deceivers can adopt several strategies to make themselves more convincing, however, their preferred strategy depends upon their situational circumstances. Informants are expected to participate in a social conversation with their handlers and to provide information. This effects the strategies they adopt when being deceitful.
How to Observe Informant Deceit
Informants use emotive language and a low-potency narrative role to elicit a sympathy bias in their listener, causing handlers to process information emotionally rather than rationally. But what should you be listening for in your informants account? This module will explain in detail how to improve your chances of identifying a deceptive informant.