Law enforcement agencies must constantly evolve and keep up with new technology to prevent, respond to, and investigate crime. From video surveillance to tactical technologies like drones or thermal imaging, these technologies have been at the forefront of assisting law enforcement. Technology has become a powerful tool in the arsenal of policing.

One area that hasn’t seen the same advancement is the method of conducting interviews and gathering statements. Traditional interview procedures can be a logistical nightmare, including travel time and costs to officers conducting the interviews and the interviewees. Fortunately, there are digital solutions that can transform the traditional interview procedure by employing online video interview platforms.

In this article, we will review the challenges of traditional interview methods and discuss remote video interviews as an alternative.

The Challenges of Traditional Interviewing Methods

As mentioned previously, the logistics of scheduling in-person interviews can be challenging, to say the least. Firstly, there must be no conflicts for the officers or the interviewee, including buffer time on either side of the interview to allow for travel. For some, this might be a five-minute journey, but for others, this can take hours if the interview location is far away or a person needs to take public transport. This could have significant ramifications for the interviewee and their ability to recall an incident in an interview. Known as the ‘forgetting curve’, this represents how, over time, humans lose information if it’s not consciously retained.

Not only is there a time constraint for officers and interviewees, but the cost implications can be burdensome. In addition to the obvious transportation costs, there could also be accommodation expenses if the officer or interviewee has travelled far to conduct the in-person interview.

Perhaps one of the most overlooked complications with in-person interviews is accessibility. Whether a person lives in a remote location, making travel challenging, or is vulnerable and would struggle with an in-person meeting, traditional interviews are not accessible in many ways.

Benefits of Online Video Interviewing

Online video interviewing has the potential to benefit both the interviewers and interviewees, especially in a law enforcement setting where there can be several complications that make in-person meetings challenging. 

Firstly, online meetings are more efficient in countering the first challenge of traditional interviews. With flexible interview timings to suit both the officers and interviewees, scheduling conflicts are reduced. Furthermore, by conducting interviews remotely, you can set up meetings quicker, reducing the forgetting curve of the witnesses or victims, resulting in a faster resolution of cases.

It’s also no surprise that online video interviewing is cost-effective for law enforcement. Agencies can divert resources to urgent matters by eliminating travel and accommodation costs.

By conducting interviews remotely, you can enhance the accessibility of the interview process. Online interviewing can be highly beneficial for people who live in remote locations or are physically disabled. Also, vulnerable individuals may find more comfort in providing testimony in a safe space like their home, rather than in a police station they’ve never been to.

Finally, by using an online video platform, you can enable interview recordings so that there is evidence of the meeting, which can be referred back to and analysed if necessary.

Case Study – Traditional Versus Online Interviewing

Using an example*, we can demonstrate the costs of in-person interviews versus an online interview platform like MeaConnexus.

In this example, an investigator travels 8 hours (round trip) to perform an in-person interview. Tallying up all expenses, we have concluded that:

• The entire in-person interview process takes 11 hours to complete
• Total cost GOV (Government Owned Vehicle) = $412.75
• Total cost POV (Personal Owned Vehicle) = $619.66 

This doesn’t factor in the investigator’s lost production time while driving between locations.

On the other hand, MeaConnexus costs a fraction of the expense:

• The entire online interview process takes 2 hours to complete
• Total cost = $169.20     

By conducting interviews online, the investigator can save 9 hours of their time, most of which is travel time between the locations, which is unproductive and highly inefficient. Not only is time saved, but the total cost of conducting online interviews works out at $243.55 (Government-Owned Vehicle) or $450.46 (Personal-Owned Vehicle).

Pros and Cons of Video Interviewing

It’s clear that video interviewing is an excellent alternative to traditional interviewing methods and offers many benefits to its users.

The Pros:

• More efficient by reducing travel time for interviewers and interviewees
• More cost-effective by reducing travel and accommodation costs
• Improved accessibility for vulnerable individuals
• Online interviews can be recorded, either as a video or as an audio recording

On the other hand, video interviewing has its drawbacks in comparison to in-person interviews.

The Cons:

• Security of the remote interview might be compromised
• Video interviews are prone to digital manipulation
• Lack of suitable, investigation-specific features

Law enforcement agencies use popular video platforms such as Teams and Zoom for interviews. However, these platforms don’t all replicate the features of an in-person interview room. In addition, a crucial aspect in today’s digital world is the security of the data & interview recording. Do you know where your data is stored? Are you confident that no one can access the interview?  Due to the growing rise of deepfakes and misinformation, these are valid questions for law enforcement personnel using these interview platforms.

But what if there were a solution designed specifically for law enforcement?

A solution that was purpose-built for interviews, that can replicate all of the features of an in-person interview environment:

• Silent observer
• Real-time translation
• Live captioning
• Automatic, time-coded transcription
• Bookmarking and annotations

MeaConnexus is a secure, evidential video interview platform built using Blockchain technology. This means that interviews are tamper-evident, so you will know if someone has altered the material. In addition, MeaConnexus utilises the highest publicly available encryption to ensure interviews are secure for all users.

By ensuring that the original interview captured is legitimate, you can prove the chain of custody and whether the interview was manipulated from the outset.

*Disclaimer – this case study is illustrative only. Costs and time savings are based on hypothetical scenarios and may vary depending on the Law Enforcement Agency.