People think that it’s either easy to talk to other people or kind of difficult. Some people are oblivious to what other people are really saying when they talk with them. It takes an experienced interviewer, detective, therapist or even bartender to know the signs to look for when people are lying. There’s more than one way to lie which makes this even more difficult. Lies of omission can be even harder to detect if you do not know what to look for. A trained ear and trained eyes can make the difference between finding out the truth, part of the truth, or a bunch of nonsense and lies. Red flags are part of the puzzle but they need to add up. On television and films a cop or a profiler can tell someone is lying because they look down and to the left or they won’t make eye contact but real life is much more complicated. Everyone is different and everyone has different ways they talk or think. When interviewing a possible witness, victim or even an accused person there’s no one Red flag that tells an interviewer that they are being lied to. Red flag clusters are the key, several things a person can do or say that add up to suspicion. When you can corroborate that with other people’s statements that consistently do not match up with the person who has shown the Red flag clusters then you have yourself a liar or someone that is not telling you the whole truth.
Of course people are not always lying to you, sometimes they are leaving out details that are important but they do not realize the importance of those details to the story. Sometimes people are in shock or whatever situation you are talking to them about was traumatic. It takes a good interviewer to know how to be delicate but matter of fact with the interviewee. It is okay to have them go over it again and stop them to ask detail questions, sometimes people won’t think to tell you something unless you ask them directly. It’s never good to assume in an interview. Being detailed and comprehensive are the keys to a good statement interview.