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Despite the recognized importance of intensive training for producing effective police interviewers and the importance of sustained supervision and feedback in maintaining learned interviewing skills, there is no empirical data on the current state of such practices in Canadian police organizations. Canadian police officers (N=171) from two organizations completed an online survey about the training, supervision, and feedback received for interviewing adult witnesses. Officers reported that their training was limited and came from several disparate sources, and many officers expressed a lack of satisfaction with the interview training that they had received. The majority of officers also indicated that it was rare for them to receive supervision or feedback from their supervisors on their interviews or refresher training to help them maintain their skills. The implications of these findings for police interviewing practices and the potential to use these results to improve current witness interviewing practices in Canada are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The administration of the right-to-silence and right-to-legal-counsel cautions in 126 investigative interviews (37 videotapes, 89 transcripts) was evaluated with a 78-item coding manual. We found that the right-to-silence and right-to-legal-counsel cautions were administered in 87% and 83% of the interviews, respectively. Average speech rates for both cautions exceeded acceptable levels for ensuring listening comprehension. Although the right-to-silence and right-to-legal-counsel cautions were not always read verbatim, the interviewers rarely missed rights that are contained in the cautions or incorrectly read the cautions. Interviewees almost always confirmed that they understood both cautions, but interviewers rarely attempted to verify that they actually understood them. Attempts to explain various rights in both cautions were always done correctly. Interviewees invoked their right to silence in 25% of cases and chose to speak to a lawyer in 31% of cases. The implications of these findings for improving the administration of justice in Canada are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]