#interrogators

That would certainly beone way to write it.

 I know that in reallife a lot of interrogators (and cops who always do more than interrogate)struggle with this. Trying to talk nicely to terrorists like Anders Breivik isnot an easy thing to do. Trying to talk to someone who has admitted to abusingchildren to determine and record the extent of their abuse is also extremelytaxing on the interrogator.

 The people whospecialise in this sort of thing burn out. They seem to develop mental healthproblems.

 I say ‘seem’, to my knowledgethere haven’t been any specific studies on these groups. I’m going by anecdotalaccounts where interrogators have reported essentially trauma symptoms. Thesymptoms I’ve seen described include depression, aggression, mood swings andfeelings of distance from family and friends.

 One account Iparticularly remember was from someone who was working to protect children fromsexual abuse. They described having difficulty relating to their own childrenafter coming home from work. Feeling unable to hug them, speak to them orinteract with them in a positive way.

 Doing things properly is difficult.

 Listening to andrecording horrific atrocities take a toll on the person who is recording. As I’vesaid this material is toxic by its nature.

 And I feel like Ishould be writing more on this general theme for the ask but there isn’t awhole lot more to say. This is a reasonable and realistic scenario which couldput the character under an incredible amount of emotional pressure.

 Thank you for sharingit. :)

The Interrogators is their name, being dysfunctional is their game. And they play it really really well.

Good verb. I approve ofthis new verb.

 I think the first thingyou have to accept is that interrogations generallyare pretty much the worst way of getting information. Things like phonetapping, reading letters or emails, following suspects constantly and examiningphysical forensic evidence are muchbetter ways of gaining accurate information.

 This is partly becausehuman memory isn’t particularly accurate and partly because humans makeexcellent liars and rubbish lie detectors.

 I’m not saying youshould give up on the possibility of a successful interrogation. But keep inmind that if your characters have managed to capture someone there’s probablysome forensic evidence they could be examining as well. Computers, phones, thecontents of their pockets-

 Don’t forget thatthings like receipts, tickets and passports have quite long histories. Ifthere’s a chance your characters could get useful information from theprisoner’s jacket pocket then use that aswell. And cross reference the information from interrogation with the physical evidence.

 On to conducting a successful interrogation.

 1)     Makesure the interrogator and prisoner speak a common language.It sounds obvious but a surprising number of real organisations have ignoredthis little trifling detail.

2)     Veryfew people refuse to say anything. The interrogatorshould be able to draw the prisoner into conversation and turn the conversationto the subject they’re interested in quite easily. Even if the prisoner refuses to tell them anything useful they’ll likely still talk about something.

3)     Getthe prisoner to tell their story backwards. This is a veryuseful technique. It makes it much easier to spot inconsistencies in a story.It doesn’t necessarily indicatewhether a person is lying but it makes it much harder for a person to lieconsistently.

4)     Keepthe prisoner isolated from their allies, but not alone. This stops them from having the chanceto confer and make up a collective story without putting them in solitaryconfinement (which might affect their memory). The prisoner might also bewilling to share information with ‘ordinary criminals’ that they wouldn’t sharewith guards or interrogators, and those ordinary criminals might be bribed intopassing that information on.

5)     Tryto build up a friendly rapport with the prisoner and demonstrate common ground.People are much more talkative when they see someone as afriendly, sympathetic ear. Pretending to have sympathy with the prisoner, theircause and ideals makes it much morelikely that they’ll share something. Talking about the prisoner’s religionwith respect and their politics as if it’s ‘common sense’ (however awful itactual is) will make someone much more likely to open up.

6)     Theinterrogator should try to give the impression of an ordinary person ‘just doingtheir job’. This overlaps with pretending to sympathise with theprisoner’s views. Distancing themselves from an organisation and presentingthemselves as a ‘normal’ person with much in common with the prisonerencourages them to share information.

7)     Conversationsshould be recorded as accurately as possible by a third party who isn’tvisible. This allows everything the prisoner says to be crossreferenced and analysed later, which will help the other characters spotinconsistencies in the prisoner’s story, or details the prisoner might not havemeant to give away.

8)     Pretendto know more than they do. Interrogators who are able to makeit look as if they already know thewhole story and the interview is just a formality are more likely to getinformation. Because if the prisoner thinks they already know everything then confirming the details is not abetrayal. (How easy this is depends on your plot)

9)     Ifpossible pretend another prisoner has already told them everything.Obviously this is only really possible if more than one person is captured andif the information is known to more than one person.

10)  Remember that interrogation takestime. No way of gathering accurate information is quick. Theprisoner would probably need to be interrogated several times over a day ormore. Countdowns of a few hours are not realistic.

 These tactics aren’tguaranteed to work, and as I’ve stressed interrogations are not great sourcesof information.

 But they’re dramaticand a mainstay of fiction for a reason. Hopefully you’ve now got more of anidea how to write one in a realistic way.

 Good luck with yourstory :)

yo that's so fair man-

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