In this week’s WZ / IAI interview and interrogation training tip, Dave Thompson, CFI, talks about how to conduct an organized retail crime (ORC) interview.
Wicklander-Zulawski has had the opportunity to speak at several conferences where loss prevention, security, or law enforcement point to the challenges of their encounters with organized retail crime rings: people who are stealing merchandise, information, credit card data, etc., and then using it to sell to fencing locations, resell merchandise, and ultimately perform a fairly organized form of criminal activity.
What we have found is how important and essential a good interview is to closing out these cases. For those who conduct interviews, whether it’s with employees for theft or fraud, criminal cases in the public sector, or even with employees for HR-type functions, don’t forget your skills when it comes to interviewing a potential organized crime subject.
Make sure you’re asking the questions in the proper context. Make sure you’re still listening for qualifiers in any statement. Most importantly, focus on finding reliable information and developing the confession with substantiation.
Figure out not only why they came to your location today, but how many times they have been there. How many other locations have they been to? Where do they get their orders from? How many people are they with? Who taught them how to steal? What’s their goal for taking merchandise from you? Where are they selling it? How are they selling it? How long have they been selling it?
It’s amazing how often a really great interview plays such an essential role in closing out an organized retail crime case. So don’t forget your skills and training when it comes to those types of interviews.
Every loss prevention investigator should strive to enhance their investigative interviewing skills as part of an ongoing commitment to best-in-class interviewing performance. This includes holding ourselves to an elite standard of interview and interrogation training that is ethical, moral and legal while demanding excellence in the pursuit of the truth. The International Association of Interviewers (IAI) and Wicklander-Zulawski (WZ) provide interview and interrogation training programs and additional guidance to investigators when dealing with dishonest employees, employee theft, sexual harassment, policy violations, building rapport, pre-employment interviewing, lying, denials and obtaining a statement.
By focusing on the latest information and research from experts in the field as well as academia, legal and psychological resources, these video tips provide interview and interrogation training techniques that can enhance the skill sets of professionals with backgrounds in law enforcement, loss prevention, security, asset protection, human resources, auditors or anyone looking to obtain the truth.
To learn more about interview and interrogation training and how you can further develop your professional skill sets, visit www.w-z.com or www.certifiedinterviewer.com.
This post was originally published in 2017 and was updated August 13, 2018.
