Analysis Of Police Interrogation

Analysis of Police Interrogation

This extract is taken from a police interrogation; a witness under questioning. Its purpose is to drawn as much information from the witness as possible but in a polite, formal way. It is of a high and low register. Every conversation is expected to go a certain way. The expectation of each conversation will vary, due to its place, purpose and the relationship

The entire conversation is turn taking. This is important because both participants of the conversation are very significant to its outcome; the policemen needs to be able to ask the right questions to get the right information and the witness needs to be given the time to try to recall as many details as possible.

The policemen is asking questions. He is doing this is in a formal manner because he wants to come across professional and it is also likely that he knows what he needs to asking, having been in this situation many times before. However, the witness is much less formal and pauses a lot. This is most likely because they are nervous and have never been in this situation before; possibly intimidated by the police office.

One of the questions asked, “Could you see if anyone was hurt?” is transactional language. The policemen is trying to drive towards precise information and wants a precise answer. This is important because the purpose of this conversation is for the policemen to draw as much vital information as possible from the witness.

Even though the speakers are giving each other opportunities to speak and the witness is saying a lot more, we know the policemen is in control. In this situation, it is most likely that the policemen is going to be leading the conversation, due to its purpose and his level of authority. However, there are several other factors that indicate who is in control. Firstly, the policemen is more formal, speaking with precision and fluency, asserting his authority, whereas the witness replies in a slow, stuttering manner. This is demonstrating a level of panic, as one would show if they were not in control of a serious situation.

This sense of panic is elaborated even further as the witness constantly uses non-fluency features during their speech, “like…er…you know.” Paired with pauses for a greater effect, these features illustrate the speaker’s anxiety of disappointing the policemen with the wrong information. In addition, these kind of phrases could also indicate how old or even where the witness is from.

The witness occasionally uses expressive language like “just”. This is important because the witness it trying to highlight that they had nothing to do with what was going on and wanted to make it clear that they had no intentions of being around when the accident happened; they were simply doing their own thing, “just walking the dog”.

From this extract we can infer that the police officer was very polite throughout the questioning. He has acted in this way because he wants the witness to feel calm and relaxed to talk. Therefore it would make his job, of finding out information, much easier.