Police interviews mediated by interpreters: An exercise in diminishment?

This paper uses monolingual police investigative interviewing conducted under the PEACE model and using Cognitive Interviewing techniques as a framework to investigate issues that may arise in bilingual police interviewing mediated by interpreters. Through a mock police interview incorporating Cognitive Interviewing verbal strategies conducted in eight English-foreign language combinations, the authors identify issues that exist in bilingual settings. The authors argue that the central strategy of modern police interviewing techniques - eliciting a free-form narrative from the witness or suspect - conflicts fundamentally with the cognitive requirements and linguistic operations of the interpreting process. Collaboration between the interpreting and policing research communities need to be furthered in order to identify appropriate adjustments when implementing Cognitive Interviewing in bilingual settings.