Topic: Interviewing witnesses - order of operations (Read 10090 times)

VickyF · « **on:** March 01, 2013, 12:22:19 PM »

I'm writing my first mystery for young readers, a kidnapping set on a royal estate, and I'm wondering how the police would approach the interviewing of witnesses.

I'm guessing that, since the police can't bring all the servants down to the station, they'd sequester everyone away in a room and have them not talk (?) How would they determine which witnesses to interview first? In addition, is there a manual I could consult that describes how the police take statements and do follow-up questions? Or is it just their own discretion? I'd love to get some guidance on that.

Thanks in advance,

Vicky

MTH · « **Reply #1 on:** March 01, 2013, 12:32:33 PM »

What do you mean by a royal estate? Is this in a different time period or in a country with a King? The setting changes the way police will act. In the traditional British novels the police herd the servants into a room with a constable watching them to make sure they're not talking to each other if there are a lot of potential witnesses. The first one interviewed would be the one with closest knowledge of the murder/crime or the one who knew the victim the most. If one of the servants is suspected of committing the crime they'd be interviewed first and isolated. That's all I can think of at the moment.

Mickey

VickyF · « **Reply #2 on:** March 01, 2013, 12:49:40 PM »

Thanks, Mickey, that's very helpful. To answer your question, it's a contemporary mystery set in a fictional monarchy where the royalty have some power. I've been looking at procedures both in the US and the UK to get a mix of approaches (great thing about a fictional country--nobody can tell me I'm wrong! I still want to be credible, of course; this isn't Hogwarts.)

I'm still curious to hear (from you or anyone else who is reading) how the police know who is the most suspicious before they've interviewed people. They have a whole bunch of suspects, and they have to talk to somebody before they know who was nearest the victim at the time of the crime. So how do they do that? A newbie question, I'm sure--and I fully cop to being a newbie.

Thanks,

Vicky

MTH · « **Reply #3 on:** March 01, 2013, 01:21:52 PM »

There are several ways. When the cops arrive they might notice someone's reacting in an unusual way: too calm, too agitated, trying to flee the area. Or, perhaps the detective or cop notices that the person isn't dressed the way they're supposed to be. For example, if it happened at night but the person's fully dressed, or the person's got dirt on their shoes, etc. etc. Or maybe one of the servants immediately tips off the cops about another one of the servants. This could be just to get suspicion on to someone else or could be for a number of reasons. Or one of the servants is late in showing up after the first alarm goes out. So where was this person then? Hope some of these can give you an idea. There are a bunch of famous novels, like the Lord Peter Wimsey series, that might help you get the tone of things.

Mickey

Dave Freas · « **Reply #4 on:** March 01, 2013, 01:50:50 PM »

Hi, VickiF, and welcome to MWF.

One of the first people the police would want to talk to is the person who discovered the kidnapping or reported it. They would take an especially hard look at this person because sometimes one of the people involved in a crime will report it to deflect suspicion or attention from themselves.

They would also talk fairly early to the people closest to the kidnapped person - a nanny, tutor, personal maid, etc. - and ask them about threats to him or her.

How they go about it, too, will depend on the age of the victim. If it's a toddler or child up to teenaged, they'd ask if anyone had expressed an unnatural interest in the child. If the victim is a teen, they'd ask about possible romantic interests or problems relating to the parents.

Hope this helps.

Dave