NCJ Number
140664
Journal
Criminal Law Review Dated: (August 1992) Pages: 532-548
Date Published
1992
Length
16 pages
Annotation
An experiment conducted in a major police force in England focused on the extent to which the videotaping of police interrogations of suspects resolves arguments concerning the reliability and credibility of interrogation- related evidence in criminal cases.
Abstract
The videotape offers the possibility of replacing the unreliable reconstruction process with a trustworthy retrieval system. It gives judges, attorneys, and juries the opportunity to have the past replayed. However, a video recording is not an accurate and objective record if what is recorded has been affected by exchanges that preceded it. In the experiment, the police force allowed television cameras in a police station for 5 weeks in 1991. The police were eager to demonstrate that they were handling suspects properly. The filming was intermittent and involved 20 cases. The transcript of a case in which the police were aware that they were being filmed and a case in which nobody was aware that the microphones were running revealed that the official video recordings did not fully or accurately reflect police interrogation techniques or the circumstances surrounding the suspect's statements. As a result, it is impossible to use videotapes to distinguish between ethical and unethical behavior by police and between unpressured and coerced interviews. In fact, the objective of the videotapes is to make the distinction impossible. Therefore, despite the goals of safeguarding the rights of suspects and protecting police officers, videotaping may achieve the latter at the expense of the former. Footnotes