Some police see through killer’s lies
By Bruce Bower
Murderers brought in for questioning by the police have plenty of reasons to feign innocence. What’s worse, according to several studies over the past decade, is that people, including police, are quite likely to be duped by such liars.
But some cops can’t be fooled, according to a new study. Shown videotapes of an interrogation of a murder suspect speaking a language they didn’t understand, some British police officers consistently knew when the man was lying and when he was telling the truth. Other officers detected lies and truths about as well as if they had guessed, and some detected lies less often than if they had guessed, report Aldert Vrij and Samantha Mann, both psychologists at the University of Portsmouth in England.