Interrogation Questions to Ask a Suspect
A reference list for investigative interviewing, ordered the way a structured interview usually runs: open recall first, then specific detail, then questions that test the account against other information. Notes explain what each question puts on the record. This is a general reference, not legal advice, and questioning must follow the rules of your jurisdiction.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Tell me in your own words what you did on [date], starting from when you woke up.
Why ask it
An uninterrupted account gives you the person's version before any detail is suggested to them. It also fixes a baseline you can return to later, which a series of narrow questions would never produce.
Take me through that again, and add anything you left out, however small.
Why ask it
A second pass usually adds detail rather than contradicting the first. What it adds, and what it quietly drops, is more useful than anything gained by pressing during the first telling.
Where were you between [time] and [time]?
Why ask it
Narrows the account to the period that matters and produces something checkable. Note the exact words used, since "around" and "about" are what an account is later defended with.
Who was with you, and who else would have seen you?
Why ask it
Produces names to contact. A person who cannot name anyone for a busy time of day, or who names only people they live with, has given you an account that is hard to confirm either way.
How would you describe your relationship with [person]?
Why ask it
Establishes the connection in their own words before they know what you have. Answers that minimise a close relationship, or overstate a distant one, become significant once other witnesses are interviewed.
When did you last see or speak to [person], and what was said?
Why ask it
Sets the last known contact and gives you something to compare with call records and messages. Asking for the content of the conversation, not just the date, is what makes the answer testable.
How did you get there and back?
Why ask it
Travel produces records: tickets, plates, fuel, cameras, cards. It also produces times that either fit the rest of the account or do not.
Did you have your phone with you, and were you using it?
Why ask it
The answer sets expectations against device and cell-site data, and covers the common claim that the phone was elsewhere or switched off.
What were you wearing?
Why ask it
Connects to witness descriptions, recovered clothing and camera footage. Ask for the specific items rather than a general description, and record the answer verbatim.
Have you been to [location] before? When, and why?
Why ask it
Prior lawful presence is a normal explanation for physical traces, so it is better raised now than offered late. A flat denial of ever visiting is a firmer position than most people intend to take.
Was there anyone else you spoke to that day, even briefly?
Why ask it
Brief encounters, a shop assistant or a neighbour, are often the parts of an account that can be checked most easily and are the parts people forget to mention.
What do you know about what happened to [person]?
Why ask it
An open question about the incident lets the person say what they know without you supplying details. Guard against telling them anything that has not been released publicly, since that removes the value of the answer.
How did you first hear about it?
Why ask it
Establishes the route by which they learned of the incident, which can be checked against calls, messages and news timing.
Who have you spoken to about this since?
Why ask it
Identifies further witnesses and shows whether accounts have been discussed between people, which matters when you weigh two statements that match closely.
Is there any reason your [fingerprints, DNA, vehicle] would be found at [location]?
Why ask it
Puts the physical evidence to them and invites an explanation on the record. Ask it neutrally rather than as an accusation, and put the question after the free account so the answer is not simply a reaction to what you disclose.
Earlier you said [statement]. Help me understand how that fits with [other statement].
Why ask it
Raising a discrepancy plainly gives the person a chance to explain it, and honest memory does produce discrepancies. Both the explanation and the refusal to give one belong in the record.
What do you expect us to find when we check [records, footage, phone data]?
Why ask it
Asks for a prediction rather than a concession, and does so without claiming to hold evidence you do not have. Never invent evidence in the question; in many jurisdictions it renders the interview worthless.
Is there anyone who might describe that day differently, and why would they?
Why ask it
Surfaces conflicts and grudges before other interviews do, and gives you the person's own account of why someone else would contradict them.
Is there anything you have said today that you want to correct?
Why ask it
Offering a correction openly is fairer than treating every slip as significant, and a correction made here is far harder to dispute later than one made months on.
Is there anything else you want on the record?
Why ask it
Closes the interview without pressure and captures anything the person has been waiting to say. Note the answer even when it is nothing, since the fact that they were asked matters.
Conducting the interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Requirements before you begin
- Confirm the person's status in the case and give any rights advisement or caution your jurisdiction requires, in the required form, before questioning starts.
- Confirm whether legal representation has been requested. If it has, questioning stops until it is present.
- Record the interview by the means your agency requires, and note the start and end times.
- Establish whether the person is a minor or has a condition that requires an appropriate adult, interpreter, or medical clearance before proceeding.
- Have the case chronology in front of you, along with which details have been released publicly and which have not.
Structure of the questioning
- 1Open with an uninterrupted account of the whole period, and do not correct or challenge during it.
- 2Return to each phase of that account and ask for detail: times, routes, people, objects.
- 3Only then put specific information or evidence to the person and ask for their explanation.
- 4Raise inconsistencies one at a time, quoting their own words back rather than characterising them.
- 5Close by offering the chance to correct or add anything, and read the account back if your procedure allows.
Practices that keep the interview usable
Ask one thing at a time
Compound questions produce answers that cannot be attributed to either half. When the transcript is read out later, a single-clause question and a single-clause answer are what hold up.
Do not lead or supply detail
Once you name the weapon, the time or the location, the person can repeat it back and their knowledge of it proves nothing. Hold back everything that has not been made public.
No promises, threats or invented evidence
Inducements and claims about evidence you do not hold are grounds for exclusion in many jurisdictions, and they raise the risk of a false admission, particularly from young or vulnerable people.
Record the exact words
Paraphrase in your notes changes meaning. Hedges, qualifiers and self-corrections matter, and so does the question you actually asked rather than the one you meant to ask.
Treat inconsistency carefully
People misremember times, routes and sequences without deceit, and stress makes it worse. Note the discrepancy, seek an explanation, and let corroboration rather than demeanour carry the weight.
Handling the difficult moments
Silence
Leave the pause. Filling it with another question usually loses the detail the person was assembling, and repeated questioning after a clear refusal to answer creates problems for the interview as a whole.
Distress
Stop, note the time, and offer a break. Continuing through visible distress affects both the reliability of the account and how the interview is judged afterwards.
A request to stop
If the person says they no longer wish to answer questions or asks for a lawyer, end the questioning and record the request in their own words.