Swedish police are implementing a new model for investigative interviewing. Previous research has highlighted that investigative interviewing is difficult to operationalize and teach to recruits. This study aimed to understand what Swedish police teachers value as important interpersonal skills for investigative interviewing as well as what strategies and struggles these teachers face when teaching recruits. Interviews were conducted with six experienced interviewing teachers at Swedish police training programs. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The teachers described that taking the interviewee’s perspective and accepting responsibility to build rapport, as well as social and situational flexibility were important skills for interviewers to process. When describing their strategies and struggles in teaching, the teachers described the need to bridge theory and practice, train flexibility through diverse scenarios, adjust to students’ social maturity and ability to self-reflect, and work with limited resources. This study also highlights how interviewing teachers express a need for adequate time and resources to be able to help recruits develop the necessary skills for interviewing.

This study examined the reliability of earwitnesses using an ecologically realistic experimental set-up. A total of 282 participants, distributed over three age-groups (7–9 vs. 11–13 year olds vs. adults), were exposed to an unfamiliar voice for 40 seconds. After a two week delay, they were presented with a 7-voice lineup. Half of the participants were exposed to a target-present lineup (TP), and the other half to a target-absent lineup (TA). For both types of lineups the participants performed poorly. In the TP-condition only the 11–13-year olds (with 27% correct identifications) performed above chance level. Furthermore, in the TA-condition all age- groups showed a high willingness to make an identification (overall mean = 53%). For both groups of children, voice identification co-varied significantly with speaking rate and pitch level, as did pitch variation for the youngest children. Neither factor correlated significantly with the adults’ identifications.