Midwest Innocence Project Blog

By NADIA PFLAUM OF THE PITCH BLOG:

Time to wax the mustache and polish the good-cop, bad-cop routine: The Kansas City Police Department plans to start filming all interrogations of crime suspects.

It used to be that the KCPD only filmed a suspect's official statement. Everything leading up to that, however, was off-camera. As of now, there is only one interrogation room at KCPD headquarters equipped with a video camera. But recently, Kansas City Police Chief Jim Corwin approved a decision to film the entire process. Police spokesman Capt. Rich Lockhart says that no specific incident prompted the policy change.

"This is one of those national trends that lots of departments are starting to follow," Lockhart says.

Not everyone at the KCPD is thrilled about the change. "There are some detectives that are supportive," Lockhart says. "Some are not."

Why wouldn't a detective want his or her interrogations thoroughly documented?

"There are certain techniques you use in interrogation that aren't coercive or forceful," Lockhart says. "There's been some concern that those techniques might get into public eye." For instance, police are allowed to lie to their suspects if they think it might turn up information they can use in an investigation. "The Supreme Court says you don't have to be truthful -- you can lie to a suspect," Lockhart says. "It's a very commonly known technique. In interrogations, the bad guys are usually lying, so detectives use lies or distortions of truth to try and convince someone it's in their best interest to share what information they have." He notes that Miranda rights, which are required to be read to any suspect before an interrogation, offer protection. Suspects are informed that they don't have to give a statement and they can wait until they have an attorney present before they say anything.

If suspected criminals get to know the detective's tricks of the trade, Lockhart says, "then they come in with an unfair advantage in the interrogation room."

Lockhart estimates that the recording equipment won't be up and running for possibly a year. He says that interrogation files won't be public while any investigation is ongoing, and might only become public once a court case is over.