The 2016 Elite Training Day at Best Buy Headquarters in Minneapolis, MN hosted more than 150 professional interviewers and investigators from around the globe. Invaluable educational and networking opportunities highlighted the day and a half value-packed agenda. A diverse group of attendees from many backgrounds and professions and included Vice Presidents, Directors, Regional and District Managers.
‘CFI of the Year’ Award Winner Revealed
Each year, all of the Certified Forensic Interviewer’s (CFI) selects a recipient for the ‘CFI of the Year’ award. All nominees for this award are nominated by his or her peers. Winners of this award are revealed annually at the Elite Training Day event. This year’s winner is Hector Erazo, CFI, LPC from Walmart. Hector was recognized for going above and beyond the Certified Forensic Interviewer values. Hector also exhibits the highest level of professionalism while interviewing sources, victims, suspects, and witnesses.
2016 Elite Training Day Speakers Included:
Mike Yoder, Supervisory Special Agent
Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) Mike Yoder has handled investigations from prostitution, drug trafficking, to undercover during his 19 years with the FBI. As a criminal profiler, SSA Yoder provides behavior analysis on single and serial homicides, serial sexual assault cases and adult kidnappings. He shared the personality types he has encountered over the years as a criminal investigator and how to interview each type. Techniques for interviewing even the most challenging suspects were brought to light and shared with the attendees.
Dr. Andy Griffiths, Former Senior Detective and Senior Investigating Officer
Dr. Andy Griffiths is a former Senior Detective and Senior Investigating Officer, having completed 30 years of police service with the UK police, where he specialized in interviewing and investigation. He is now an Associate Tutor at the College of Policing (UK), Visiting Research Fellow in Criminal Investigation at the University of Derby, and Criminal Justice at the University of Portsmouth, as well as offering training and consultancy to commercial organizations internationally. He has also contributed to miscarriage of justice investigations in the USA, New Zealand and the UK. As a senior detective he led numerous major crime investigations and contributed to UK national policy on police interviewing for over 10 years. Griffiths shared his interviewing and investigation global insights with the Elite group, helping to expand their interviewing and interrogation know-how regarding the PEACE Model of interviewing and Proper Preparation for a Case.
Steven Kaplan, Senior of Counsel, P. A.
Steve Kaplan is a senior of counsel at the Fredrikson & Byron, P. A. law firm in Minneapolis where he has represented individuals wrongly convicted of serious crimes as a result of coerced false confessions and false third-party witness statements. He explored the reasons why the Reid interrogation technique, both as designed and as it may actually be implemented, poses the serious risk of wrongful convictions of innocent persons. He also addressed possible reforms to reduce those risks. Kaplan provided valuable information designed to help attendees identify when a false confession may be taking shape within their own interviews and interrogations.
Dave Thompson, CFI
Dave Thompson, CFI is Director of Investigations, Research and Innovation at Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates (WZ). He handles a variety of investigations and conducts interviews and interrogations across a wide spectrum of clients and diverse cases. As a speaker for WZ, Thompson has presented at seminars, hosted a variety of webinars as well as live broadcasts of training. Thompson is also an active member of the International Association of Interviewers (IAI) and has contributed blogs, video tips and webinars to support the continuing education of IAI members. Thompson reviewed the Brendan Dassey interrogations from Netflix’s Making a Murderer documentary, and used that case information to lead an interactive session with the attendees working through potential pitfalls to avoid during interviews and interrogations.
