Interviewing vulnerable and intimidated witnesses requires adapting standard investigative routines to safeguard wellbeing while preserving evidential integrity. In this focused, 60-minute operational webinar, policing practitioners will explore how to apply a victim-focused PEACE framework—combining trauma-informed rapport building, Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) principles, and tailored communication strategies to capture clear, reliable accounts from witnesses with complex needs.
Why Join the Course
- Built for Operational Reality: Designed around busy policing schedules—gain practical planning checklists, pacing techniques, and communication adaptations in just one hour.
- Victim-Focused PEACE Adaptation: Learn how to tailor each phase of the PEACE model—from pre-interview assessment and ground rules to non-leading recall—around the needs of vulnerable witnesses.
- Aligned with National Guidance: Reinforces College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice (APP), Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) standards, Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (YJCEA) eligibility, and the Victims’ Code.
- Effective Use of Support Mechanisms: Understand how and when to deploy Special Measures, Registered Intermediaries, and ABE video-recorded interviews to enable witnesses to give their best evidence.
Why It Matters
Vulnerability—whether stemming from age, mental health, neurodiversity, learning disability, trauma, or fear of intimidation—can significantly impact how a witness processes questions and recalls events. Without early identification and appropriate adjustments, interviews risk causing secondary distress, eliciting fragmented or misunderstood accounts, and undermining evidential weight at court.
Applying a victim-focused PEACE approach ensures vulnerable witnesses are treated with dignity and patience—reducing attrition, preventing memory contamination, and securing robust, court-ready testimony.
Who Should Attend
This webinar is tailored specifically for serving police officers, police staff, and investigative practitioners, including:
- Response and Neighbourhood Policing officers conducting initial vulnerability assessments and witness contacts
- Public Protection Unit (PPU), Domestic Abuse, Child Abuse, and Sexual Offence investigators
- Trainee detectives, PIP Level 1 and PIP Level 2 investigators, and CID officers
- ABE-trained interviewers, police staff investigators, and Victim/Witness Care officers
- Sergeants and supervisory officers reviewing interview strategies, Special Measures applications, and case files
Learning Objectives
By the end of this 60-minute session, attendees will be able to:
- Identify Vulnerability Early: Recognise statutory and situational indicators of vulnerability and intimidation under Section 16 and Section 17 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999.
- Adapt the PEACE Framework: Tailor planning, rapport-building, ground rules, and questioning pacing to accommodate trauma, neurodiversity, cognitive differences, or communication barriers.
- Elicit Uncontaminated Best Evidence: Use open, developmentally and cognitively appropriate prompts to maximise free narrative while avoiding leading, abstract, or multi-part questions.
- Coordinate Intermediaries & Special Measures: Work effectively alongside Registered Intermediaries and appropriate adults, and secure timely Special Measures to support the witness through to trial.
