A wave of state legislation has changed what investigators are permitted to do in the interview room. If your agency operates in one of these states, the methods many officers were trained on are now a liability. This page lays out what changed, what compliant interviewing looks like, and how ASC trains for it.
What changed
For decades, a large share of American interrogation training taught tactics that a growing number of states now restrict by statute: false claims about the existence of evidence, implied or explicit promises of leniency, and other forms of deception, particularly with minors. Where those tactics were once treated as standard practice, they are increasingly grounds for suppression.
A suppressed statement is not a technicality. It can be the difference between a conviction and an acquittal, and a single suppression order can unwind an entire case. The Suppression Database collects the decisions where interview and warrant practice decided the outcome.
Which states have acted
Seven states have enacted laws restricting deceptive interrogation of minors, and several more have measures pending:
- Illinois (SB 2122, 2021) and Oregon (SB 418, 2021) acted first.
- California (AB 2644), Utah (HB 171), and Delaware (HB 419) followed in 2022.
- Indiana (SB 415) and Nevada (AB 193) enacted theirs in 2023.
- New York, Connecticut, and others have bills under consideration, and proposals to extend protections to adult interrogations are being debated.
The Juvenile Interrogation Laws tracker lists each statute, its bill citation, and its status, updated as the landscape moves.
What compliant interviewing looks like
The alternative is not simply to be less confrontational. It is a disciplined, research-grounded method: building genuine rapport to open reliable memory, using the Enhanced Cognitive Interview to improve the accuracy and completeness of an account, and applying Strategic Use of Evidence to test that account without deception.
This is the approach the FBI HIG, the UN Méndez Principles on Effective Interviewing (2021), and the interviewing research have converged on. It produces statements that hold up under judicial review precisely because they were obtained without the tactics now under scrutiny. It is also the evidence-based alternative to the Reid Technique, and it is the foundation of every ASC methodology.
How ASC helps agencies make the transition
ASC's flagship law enforcement program, From Information to Evidence, teaches this methodology end to end: the interview that gathers reliable information, and the documentation that turns it into evidence that survives review. It was built by a 24-year New York State Police Senior Investigator who delivered the accusatorial model as he was trained to, watched the resulting interrogations fail under judicial review, and rebuilt the approach around what the research supports.
For agencies facing a statutory change, ASC also provides consulting: reviewing interview and interrogation policy against the new legal standard, and training command staff and investigators together so the whole unit moves in step rather than one class at a time. The goal is simple: an interview room that produces reliable information and statements that stand up, in a state where the old playbook no longer does.