Abstract
Criminal investigations often rely heavily on information gathered from eyewitnesses. For this reason, it is imperative that investigators treat eyewitness accounts as they would any other evidence: by collecting them in a manner that maximises quantity without compromising quality. Although several interviewing protocols have been designed to help interviewers elicit complete and accurate accounts from witnesses, the interview skills that police officers learn during training often do not generalise to their interviews with real witnesses. In the present study, we investigated two possible predictors of field interviewing performance by New Zealand Police officers attempting to obtain accreditation as Level 3 Specialist Adult Witness Interviewers. Specifically, we examined whether the length of participants’ prior experience as a police officer or their performance in a mock interview during training could predict their field performance within six months of training. Encouragingly, the majority of participants were rated as suitable for accreditation within six months of training. Aspects of our two predictor variables were independently associated with some aspects of field interview performance, albeit in different directions. While more years of police experience led to poorer field performance, better mock interview performance predicted better field performance. Our findings shed some light on which police officers might struggle to implement newly learnt skills in their day-to-day work; they also have important implications for who is selected for training and who might need more comprehensive support during the accreditation process.