The Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD’s) foray into the world of science-based1
interviewing began as many good crime stories do – with an unsolved murder and a suspect
the cops couldn’t crack. In a plot twist worthy of a Hollywood movie, the crime in question
also involved a dismembered body and a case gone cold after two years with no arrest. Into
the breach stepped two veteran detectives from the LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division
(RHD). They were the first local law enforcement officers in the country to be trained in
science-based interview methods that, in many ways, turned the age-old approach to police
interviewing on its head. What follows is an exploration of what these methods have meant
for one of the nation’s leading police departments and what the implications are for the rest
of American law enforcement.