How Police Interrogators Get You To Confess - Chase Hughes

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]There's like a five-step protocol that people use to make someone confess to a crime. And if you really examine what the protocol is, it's just a massive shift in context and perception.

[00:00:10]>> What's the protocol?

[00:00:12]>> You ready?

[00:00:13]>> So, it's uh socialize, minimize, rationalize, and project.

[00:00:20]>> Is that not four?

[00:00:22]>> Yeah, it's four steps and then there's an alternative question at the end.

[00:00:25]Okay.

[00:00:25]>> Is it this or this?

[00:00:28]So, just like name a name a crime that's not gross that we can actually talk about anything you want. Like stolen, >> texting while driving.

[00:00:36]>> Okay. Texting while Well, they're not going to be in an interrogation room.

[00:00:39]>> Okay. Yeah, cool. Uh uh um smuggling arms.

[00:00:43]>> Okay. Smuggling arms. Great. All right.

[00:00:45]So, the first step would be social >> [ __ ] interrogation room for texting while driving.

[00:00:50]There's just armies of interrogators up and down the United States highways.

[00:00:54]Okay.

[00:00:54]>> It was it may solve the problem. Okay.

[00:00:56]So, smuggling arms.

[00:00:59]So, you're talking to this person and you decided that it's time to shift into interrogation. The beginning of an interrogation is called the interview process. And the the shift is called the confrontation. So, the confrontation uh is basically just where you tell them like that they're lying, but you don't do it in a way that hurts their ego. So, I might say something like, "Chris, I appreciate you and just want you to know I've been doing this a really long time.

[00:01:24]I've talked to a lot of people and if there's if there's one thing I know for sure, it's when I'm not getting the full story and I don't think I'm getting the full story here. And then I go right into the socialized part of this thing. And when I say socialize, it's basically people will understand. So the line is I think at the end of the day, um, you did this because you're a good person. And I'm going to explain why. And I've talked to a lot of bad people and I know you're not a bad person. And I think when people see all the steps that led up to you getting wrapped up in this that they're going to understand, then minimize.

[00:02:00]And like I said, I don't think you're a bad guy. And and to be honest, I deal with bad people all the time. And people that do way worse stuff than this. I've seen people that have done way worse than this get completely over it. So it's not that big of a deal. I'm not Nobody's accusing you of being some mass murder or something like that. This is not the same thing. then it's rationalized.

[00:02:22]I know you came from a a poor village. I know that you had a a really tough background and I know that you're a good person and I'm not saying whether or not you were doing this to pay for it, but I know that your aunt has several hundred,000 of medical bills that she's needed to pay.

[00:02:40]Now I project.

[00:02:42]So now the project is basically it's not your fault. And I think anybody that was handed your conditions and your life would have probably made the same choices that you did. And there's I know a lot of times these arms smuggling rings will use threats and pressure to get someone into the unit. So if that happened to you, I just want you to know that's something that I want to know about so I know that you didn't like deliberately decide to do this. And then we move into the alternative question.

[00:03:10]And I'll say, "So, Chris, what I'm really trying to find out here is, were you doing this just to make a bunch of money and then go buy a bunch of drugs and live in some other country, or were you really like trying to help one of your family members?" Cuz I know these guys have been talking to you and I've looked into you as well, and it doesn't look like you're a bad person.

[00:03:30]So, now it's an alternative question of are you a piece of crap or did you try to do something good for your family?

[00:03:36]So, that's >> both of them are admissions of guilt, though.

[00:03:39]>> Yeah. Yeah. I'm just trying to find out the reason that this happened. Yeah.

[00:03:42]>> You're not you're trying to find out an admission of guilt.

[00:03:45]>> Yes. Yes. But in the in the conversation, we're trying to find out the reason it happened.

[00:03:51]>> So, we're going for the admission of guilt because the the first part of the interrogation, we there's like a long series of questions we ask and based on those responses, if they respond a certain way to each question, then we move towards the uh confession methodology.

[00:04:06]So there and they're basic questions like um if if I if there was a robbery or in some neighborhood here, can I say the city that we're in?

[00:04:16]>> Of course.

[00:04:17]>> Okay. So let's say like two blocks away maybe. Yeah. Two blocks from here there's a neighborhood in Austin and there's a there's a neighborhood there and let's say you robbed a house. One of those questions to determine how guilty you are is one of my favorite questions in the world. is called the bait question and it basically says um let's let's imagine you did this. I wanted to put you in the mindset so you can understand the question.

[00:04:41]>> Let's say you you stole a bike out of this person's garage couple days ago. I called you up and like, "Hey, I think you you might have seen something that's going to help us in the case. Could you please come in here and talk to us about the about the case?" You come in and I say, "Chris, dude, thank you for for coming in. uh this is important to us.

[00:05:02]We've got officers out there that they've been working all through the night uh collecting evidence and stuff.

[00:05:07]I just want to ask you one question and you seem like a really good guy. So, I want you to think really carefully before you answer this. Is there any reason whatsoever that one of the neighbors would have a Ring doorbell camera that shows your vehicle in that area?

[00:05:24]So now you're confronted with a dilemma of if I say no and he whoops out a video now I'm a liar and they probably know that I did this. If I say yes I'm at I'm placing myself at the scene of the crime, right? And the cool thing is that someone who's innocent would be like nope and it would be instantly they would have no hesitation. They'd have tons of confidence of nope there's absolutely no reason.

[00:05:51]So, that's one of those those kind of setup questions. And another >> that's regardless of whether you've got the Ring doorbell footage or not.

[00:05:58]>> Yes. And I don't say that I have it.

[00:06:00]>> Is there any reason why?

[00:06:02]>> Yes. Is there any reason that one of the officers would have received some Ring doorbell or some doorbell video camera footage that shows your vehicle in that area?

[00:06:13]>> Not you do anything bad. Um, and another one is another great question. I can't reveal all these, but >> another great question is called the punishment question.

[00:06:25]And this works on kids, it works on adults, it doesn't matter. And it's just a few words long.

[00:06:33]I would say, "What do you think should happen to the person that did this?"

[00:06:41]And you'll always get amazing answers.

[00:06:43]I'll give you my kids example, and this is from when they were uh seven and eight, give or take. I came home from work. I'm in this like my camo uh uniform. And we had a white living room rug and there's like a little cardboard thing of chocolate milk just like sitting on its side and there's like a little pool of chocolate milk on the carpet. And they're both playing the Xbox. The milk's like right there a few feet away. I was like, "What? What the hell, guys? They're like, "Oh, I don't know." And I was like, "Did you guys do this?" And they're like, "Nope." And I said, "All right." William Kitchen Charlotte dining room [ __ ] prisoner prisoners dilemma them.

[00:07:26]>> Yeah.

[00:07:28]And I went over to um Charlotte. Yeah, it was Charlotte. And I said, "Charl, what do you think should happen to the person that did this?"

[00:07:38]And she goes, "Spankins grounded. No more Xbox, can't play with the friends, no more sleepovers, can't eat in the living room anymore. It just goes on and on. I was like, "Okay, all right."

[00:07:49]>> It's a kid's equivalent of capital punishment.

[00:07:52]>> Yeah. And I was like, "Damn." So, I went to William and I said, "Will, what do you think should happen to the person that did this?" He goes, "Uh, maybe no more chocolate milk in the living room."

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