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Podcast interview: Interrogation/interview techniques with David Zulawski

My fourth ‘People Who Read People’ podcast episode is an interview with David Zulawski, an expert in interrogation and interview techniques. Zulawski is the cofounder of Wicklander Zulawski and Associates, a company that consults and trains people on interrogation and interviewing. Before starting that business in 1982, he worked in several law enforcement and investigative positions; he’s been a licensed polygraph examiner, a licensed private investigator, and a certified fraud examiner.

Links to the show on different platforms (some stuff we talked about is below that):

Zulawski and Wicklander wrote a book on interrogation techniques that is very respected in the law enforcement and private loss prevention industries: Practical Aspects of Interview and Interrogation. Here’s the Amazon link for that book. Before interviewing David, I read that book, and I highly recommend it. There are a lot of great concepts that I think would apply to all people-focused endeavors, including management and negotiation.

Some things we talk about in this podcast:

  • Why is the non-confrontation, rapport-focused interrogation technique W-Z recommends the best approach?
  • Why is it important to downplay the significance of the crime or incident? What are some approaches for doing that?
  • Why is it important to try to prevent a suspect from making denials? Why does having a suspect make denials make an interrogator’s job more difficult?
  • Why is it important to not tell a suspect all the evidence you have against them?
  • What are some behavioral clues a suspect is lying or telling the truth?
  • What are some crossovers from interrogation behavioral patterns to poker tells?
  • How does the non-confrontational approach help prevent false confessions?

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