False Confession - Taping Interrogations and Confessions

Taping Interrogations and Confessions

When examining the particulars of false confessions and wrongful convictions, it is verifiable that many problems originate in the interrogation phase of the investigation where coercion leads to an extraction of a false confession from the detained suspect. The widespread solution has been to video record custodial interrogations.

Until the 1980s, most confession evidence was recorded and later presented at trial in either a written or an audiotaped format. Today, it is estimated that more than half of the law enforcement agencies in the United States videotape at least some interrogations. 97% of these agencies and departments have found them useful. In Great Britain, the Police and Criminal Evidence Act of 1984 built certain protections into the questioning process, including the requirement that all suspect interviews be taped.

Prevalent assumptions of videotaped confessions suggest that they allow for a more complete and objective record of the police-suspect interaction, and they serve as a visual representation that be interpreted more fluidly by fact finders (the judge and the jurors) during the trial proceedings. Moreover, those who advocate videotaping interrogations argue that the presence of the camera will deter the use of coercive methods to induce confessions and will provide a record to evaluate thoroughly the voluntariness and veracity of any confession.