child witness interviewing police training

Child Witness Interview Simulator

Next-Generation Online training for the Police

The simulator is a powerful and innovative solution to complement existing interview training for new recruits and early career front line police officers.

Created by HighSkillz and The Open University’s Centre for Policing Research and Learning, with policing partners, it is the first online simulation-based training on interviewing techniques that addresses individual officers in classroom setting and on their own.

Main features

Realistic scenarios co-developed with police trainers and practitioners
Authentic dialogues that teach and explore 51 learning points from good practice
When interacting with child and parent, the player needs to be mindful of rapport-building and emotional state in order to progress
Recruits exposed to the Achieving Best Evidence process (form and interview)
Explicit feedback on each learning point with concrete hints on how to improve

Benefits

Decreases time taken to gain competency in child interviewing
Promotes deeper understanding of the many factors affecting child interviewing in the real world
Enriches traditional classroom training approach
Enables large-scale deployment outside the classroom

Practice child interviewing in two unique settings

1 First Response

Obtain an initial account of an alleged crime that was witnessed by a child in the neighbourhood. When interacting with parent and child, use good practice and pay attention to rapport and engagement.

2 Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) Interview

Practice conducting an ABE interview in an ABE suite. Follow good practice and use child interviewing techniques to ensure the collated evidence may be used in court.