Interviews

I have to admit I don't know what training new recruits get nowadays on interview techniques. Come to think of it, I can't remember what training I got either, but I guess each officer develops their own style and technique. Of course there are many different types of interview in probation work, each with varying aims and purposes. I suppose the spectrum goes from quasi-interrogation to therapeutic counselling, and with PSR type somewhere in the middle. The venue can often be quite a significant factor and include places such as police station cell, clients living room, office interview room, hospital ward or prison visits area. 

Personally, I never know how any interview will start until I see the person and I never know what the first question will be. Some of my most memorable interviews have begun with the words 'you seem upset/angry/irritated.....' Sometimes there is an obvious starting point 'how did you injure your head/arm/leg? Or 'what sort of work are you doing? having noticed mud on boots/oil on hands/paint in hair. You get the gist.

One particularly memorable interview in recent time took place in the smallest interview room I've ever encountered at the local Magistrates Court. To make matters worse, I had a trainee probation officer with me that day and so three of us had to squeeze into a box not much bigger than a walk in wardrobe. The magistrates wanted me to do a quick, routine FDR with a possible view to UPW. I can't remember the offence, but it was almost certainly an assault of some sort. We all sat down and the situation was explained to the defendant.

Now FDR's are quite formulaic and involve basically getting information in order to fill a form in. I don't like them for this very reason and it doesn't suit my interviewing style. Anyway, it seemed appropriate to start simply by asking 'why did you do it? There followed what I can only describe as the longest pregnant pause I've ever encounterd. It went on for an acutely embarrassing length of time - in fact so long that I was beginning to reflect that my normally infallible interviewing technique was about to fail spectacularly, and in front of a TPO. I was seriously considering having to ask a supplementary question, before getting an answer to the first. 

But then it came. It started as a slow burn, but soon escalated to become a passionate, angry tirade of pain, hurt and accumulated hatred that had clearly been effectively bottled up since his abused childhood. The young man spoke uninterrupted and barely drawing breath for over 25 minutes. I guess it could variously be described as a boil being figuratively lanced, or a genie being let out of a bottle. I don't think he had ever told anyone else what he told us that afternoon in that small room and it was all deeply worrying. Nevertheless, in the limited time we still had available, the genie somehow had to be put back into the bottle. My pen never touched the paper and all thoughts of an FDR were abandoned. This chap had to see his GP urgently and I knew we needed a psychiatric report. The point as ever is that you simply never know what course an interview is going to take and it's wise to try and be prepared for anything.