PART I PRELIMINARY FIELD INTERVIEWS V. COMPREHENSIVE INTERVIEWS There are two basic types of witness interview: preliminary field interviews and comprehensive interviews. The characteristics and goals of each are described below. Preliminary Field Interview A short interview, often done at the scene of the incident, designed to obtain important information that a professional investigator will need during the early stages of an investigation. This type of interview tends to be conducted in the midst of a human rights incident or in the immediate aftermath, while the details are fresh in the interviewee’s mind. The primary goals of a preliminary interview are to obtain • basic, factual information about the incident — who, what, when, where, how, and sometimes why; • information that will help identify other witnesses and evidence and provide solid leads that an investigator could pursue (in either the short or long term) in their efforts to reconstruct what happened; and • enough contact information so that a professional investigator can get in touch with the interviewee to follow up with a comprehensive interview if necessary. Comprehensive Interview A longer, more thorough interview in a safe, comfortable environment, separated in time and space from the incident. The primary goals of a comprehensive interview are: • to find out everything the witness knows about the event; • to gather information in order to evaluate the truthfulness and accuracy of the witness’s statement; • to learn if there are additional witnesses or physical evidence the witness knows of; and • to gather sufficient background information to enable locating the witness in the future (e.g., current address, social media handles, contact information of relatives who will know where the interviewee is should he or she have to move). If you are a locally based frontline documenter and/or first responder, you will only be conducting preliminary field interviews. This will be our focus for the rest of this section. If you are interested in improving your interviewing skills and learning more about conducting comprehensive interviews, see the Additional Resources section at the end of this document. However, keep in mind that, no matter how proficient you become, the investigator working the case must always complete his or her own comprehensive interview. 140 VIDEO AS EVIDENCE: FILMING PRELIMINARY INTERVIEWS V 1.0 FILMING Types of Interviews