The Police Interview

The police investigation will involve questioning the suspect and interviewing other witne**es to gather sufficient evidence to charge the suspect or to exclude the suspect from the investigation.

 One of the lawful grounds for authorising the detention of a suspect is to ‘obtain evidence by questioning’. Interviewing the person suspected of committing the crime is central to most police investigations and can be intimidating, even for those experienced at dealing with the police.

 A suspect’s legal rights exist to ensure the reliability and fairne** of evidence resulting from the suspect’s detention. The admi**ibility of evidence obtained in the police interview, particularly confe**ion evidence, is vulnerable to challenge under **. 76 and 78 PACE where it has been obtained in breach (accidental or otherwise) of PACE and the Codes of Practice.

PACE CODE C PARAGRAPH 11.1A: 

An interview is the questioning of a person regarding their involvement or suspected involvement in a criminal offence. 

Safeguards for the client: 

• All interviews must be carried out at the police station except in the limited circumstances set out in C 11.1
• Before any interview the Custody Officer must assess whether the detainee is fit to be interviewed (C 12.3). In some circumstances, the Custody Officer will need to consult an appropriate healthcare professional to determine the suspect’s fitness to be interviewed
• At the beginning of an interview, or when an interview recommences after a break, the detainee must be cautioned.
• Apart from a restricted number of exceptions, a suspect who has requested legal advice may not be interviewed or continue to be interviewed until they have met with their legal representative.

Code C Note for Guidance 6D acknowledges the role of the legal representative during the interview.

Interviews will be recorded – the recording requirements being of practical importance in providing an accurate account of what took place. 
PACE s.60 and Code of Practice E - interviews relating to indictable only and either way offences must be audio recorded. The interview must be recorded openly and the master copy is sealed.
The recording must contain details of where and when interview took place, who was present and whether any breaks took place. A ‘balanced summary’ will be prepared from a working copy of the recording and sent to the defence by CPS as part of the initial details of the prosecution case. 
The defence may want to check this summary whilst listening to the recording, or may be prepared to agree the summary based on their own notes if they attended the police station. 
The defence may decide they need a transcript or, in certain circumstances, they may want the recording to be played to the court.
Any interview that is not audio recorded must be contemporaneously recorded in note form. Interviews relating to summary offences do not have to be audio recorded, but they are routinely. Increasingly, interviews are visually recorded – PACE s.60A and PACE Code F.

You will be required to read PACE Code of Practice D which governs video identification procedures. (Extracts are included in your Criminal Litigation Resource Pack.)

 The legal representative attending at the police station should advise the client as to whether he should take part in an identification procedure. Generally the advice will be to take part - because if the suspect refuses then the police can set up covert ID procedures.

 Identification procedures are supervised by an Identification Officer.

More information will be put in Evidence. 

At the conclusion of the investigation, the Custody Officer must again decide whether there is sufficient evidence to charge the suspect in accordance with PACE s.37.

The Custody Officer has regard to guidance issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions when making the decision. He can also seek the advice of the CPS and, for more serious offences, he is required to send the case information to the CPS for them to make the decision. 

The Custody Officer must take into account alternatives to prosecution such as a caution or conditional caution. It may not be in the public interest to prosecute. 

The Custody Officer will also have to make a decision about whether to grant the suspect bail and, if so, whether conditions should be attached 

• Unconditional Release - currently no further action, although the police can arrest again at a later date
• Caution or a conditional caution. For minor offences or offenders with few previous convictions, but only if offence was admitted
   
• Give Police Bail- (with or without conditions) to return to the police station - this might be pending further enquiries or CPS decision on charge. 
• Release the suspect and issue proceedings by way of information and summons/ written charge and requistion 
• Charge and release on bail to court (either conditional or unconditional bail) The suspect will be given a date to attend the Magistrates Court
• Charge and remand in custody - The police should exercise this power proportionality. Is it appropriate to remand suspect in custody? 

In many less serious cases the police will use their powers of diversion/disposal rather than charging the offender with an offence – in order to try to stop the courts being overwhelmed with less serious offences. Powers include: Simple Cautions

The offender is warned about the unacceptability of their behaviour and the consequences of further offending. The main aim is to avoid future offending. Further offences are likely to be charged unless the second offence is minor and of a different type or two years have elapsed since the first offence. This can only be used when:

• There is evidence of the offenders guilt (sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction) 
• The offender admits guilt
• The offender agrees to caution - refusal could lead to charge.

It is important that the offender give informed consent – the adverse consequences of accepting a caution having been spelled out to the suspect – or the caution may be overturned upon judicial review. There are no rigid rules and police officers have discretion when to caution. They will consider whether it is in the public interest to prosecute.

Conditional Cautions: 

The difference between these and simple cautions is that certain conditions must be complied with to receive the caution and avoid prosecution. There are three types of conditions:

• Those aimed at rehabilitation – changing the offender’s behaviour, e.g. attendance at drug or alcohol misuse programmes
• Those aimed at reparation – repairing damage done to the victim, e.g. apologising to the victim or physically repairing or making good damage done; and
• Those aimed at punishment, e.g. payment of a fine (£150 maximum – less for some offences).

If the offender does not comply with the conditions imposed they will be charged with the offence and taken to court. Used to address the offender’s behaviour or to make reparation to the victim, Code of Practice for Conditional Cautions 

Only be administered to offenders who have admitted their guilt. The police or CPS must also consider that there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction and whether it is in the public interest to prosecute.

Neither simple nor conditional cautions are criminal convictions but both will be recorded against the offender on the police database and will remain there with fingerprints, photographs and DNA and other samples.

Penalty Notices for Disorder (PND) 

There are now many offences for which the police can issue these notices. The notice requires the offender to pay the penalty of £50 or £80 (depending on the offence). They can be issued at the scene or at a Custody Suite, No admission of guilt is required for a PND

A PND is not a criminal conviction but the police record them on the database ‘for administrative purposes’ and failure to pay can result in offender being taken to court and fined or even imprisoned ultimately.

We have now considered the key police powers and procedures during an investigation. So far we have made mention of the following officers:

·                The Custody Officer;

·                The Arresting / Interviewing Officer – he has no obligation to disclose information to the solicitor or detainee but the solicitor will want to obtain as much information about the investigation as he can;

·                The Review Officer; and

·                The Identification Officer.