Reid Technique Audio

John Reid was a police officer who came up with idea, the Reid technique. It has become a technique many police departments use. However, it has it's problems. It can cause innocent people to be sent to prison for something they didn't do. The Reid technique involves observing a person being interrogated or interviewed to determine if they are guilty or not. Some things Police Officers look at is the body language, whether they keep playing with their hands, pretending to pick at imaginary lint off their clothes, shaking their legs... etc. The problem with this is, it causes anxiety to the point where people confess to something they know they did not do. Pressuring people for hours only makes them want to get out of the situation regardless if they did or did not commit the suspected crime. There have been examples of people who have been in prison and years later, it is later revealed that they were innocent. This then leads to the cops being under investigation for not doing their jobs right or the city being sued for all types of false accusations.

One thing that was mentioned was how television portrays investigations and interrogations. That is also false. In real life, it is boring. Television makes these situations very dramatic, go figure. More and more cases have appeared since the Reid Technique has been used and it has shown over and over again that there are obvious flaws to using this technique. This is why a new technique is starting to be used, it is called P.E.A.C.E which stands for preparation and planning, engage and explain, account, closure, and evaluate. This is well known in England because that is where it began.
This technique helps officers distinguish between a lie and the truth better than the Reid technique. It makes the person getting interviewed/interrogated say more details. This can cause someone to trip up their story. It gets harder to retell the scenario again and again with the same details. Personally, I feel like I would prefer using the PEACE technique because some people already know how to restrain themselves from looking anxious and that may throw off an officer, also because if it has been proven that the Reid technique has so many flaws than obviously there should be changes made.