Officers should not be subjected to ‘memory tests’

POLICE officers should not be subject to “memory test” style investigations when they are interviewed following a death or serious injury on duty, experts have said.

The first ever post-incident procedure seminar was held by the Police Federation of England and Wales in October for the benefit of firearms and other operational officers.

On the second day of the seminar in Leicestershire, Lorraine Hope, Professor of Applied Cognitive Psychology at Portsmouth University, spoke at length about how memory can be distorted based on the incident itself and the events that immediately follow.

She said: “A memory is a personal record of people’s experience, and is not the same as objective video or audio recording.

“Memories tend to be incomplete and as a consequence of that, our accounts are incomplete too. A person’s memory is vulnerable and fragile, and can be distorted by events that have happened after an incident. Individuals confuse the source of their memories over time, and most importantly of all we are unlikely to realise that our memory has been distorted in this way.

“Therefore we need to accept that omissions and errors will occur and this does not necessarily reflect reticence or deception.”

“Investigations should not be memory tests – people should be encouraged to recount events as they experienced them.”

Prof Hope spoke alongside Dave Blocksidge, from the Police Firearms Officers Association, to discuss the issues that can arise when officers are asked to provide statements following an incident.

Mr Blocksidge illustrated this with a series of clips, one of which was shown in comparison with the statement made by one of the officers involved. Delegates saw how the account differed from the video when recalling finer details.

Simon Chesterman, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on firearms, also spoke at the conference about the different factors that can cloud an officer’s statement.

“It’s often a traumatic and highly emotional time with someone having potentially lost their life”, he said.