Logo of Phnom Penh Post newspaper Phnom Penh Post - Police get primer on interviewing children

Police get primer on interviewing children

The Child Protection Unit (CPU) holds a police training session on child interviewing techniques in Phnom Penh
The Child Protection Unit (CPU) holds a police training session on child interviewing techniques in Phnom Penh yesterday. Vireak Mai

Police get primer on interviewing children

Sitting in groups around tables, two dozen National Police officers read from training handouts featuring a picture of a battered girl in the front.

Each officer came to the training sessions this week to learn how to interview similar victims.

The training is on questioning “vulnerable victims who may have suffered the worst crimes imaginable”, said John Geden, a volunteer training coordinator for the Cambodian Children’s Fund (CCF) and the Kingdom’s Child Protection Unit (CPU). “What we are teaching is a professional approach whereby a prosecutor and a judge receive a detailed account, whereby they won’t feel the need to interview [a child victim] again.”

Repeated interviews can re-traumatise children, and cause them to feel that people think they are lying, he said.

National Police officers from 15 provinces across the country attended the week-long workshop, said James McCabe, CPU’s director of operations. Geden said 23 women and one man attended the course, which is sponsored by CCF.

The lopsided gender ratio was designed to give children a maximum amount of comfort while answering questions about distressing events said Mok Chito, a deputy National Police commissioner.

“We have learned that the use of female police officers when interviewing children is the most successful,” Chito said. “Especially with girls who were raped or sexually abused, because this way they don’t feel shame.”

The course is the first of its kind in Cambodia, Geden said at one of the sessions held at the capital’s Icon building yesterday. Attendees learn about how a child thinks, how to build a rapport with a victimised child and how to extract a testimony solid enough to put a perpetrator behind bars without inducing further trauma, he said.

Child victims must be treated in a specialised manner when being interviewed by law enforcement officials about being victimised, especially in cases of sexual abuse or violence, McCabe said. More than adults, children are prone to accidentally giving conflicting testimony, forgetting certain details and feeling intimidated by having their story questioned.

“One of the primary reasons [for the training] is if we elicit a good and credible statement in the first place, it will take the pressure off the child possibly having to recant,” McCabe said. “[The training is] all about memory, the way children respond to questions, rapport, interview techniques, dealing with irresponsive children.”

MOST VIEWED

  • Wing Bank opens new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004

    Wing Bank celebrates first anniversary as commercial bank with launch of brand-new branch. One year since officially launching with a commercial banking licence, Wing Bank on March 14 launched a new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004. The launch was presided over by

  • Girl from Stung Meanchey dump now college grad living in Australia

    After finishing her foundational studies at Trinity College and earning a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Melbourne in 2022, Ron Sophy, a girl who once lived at the Stung Meanchey garbage dump and scavenged for things to sell, is now working at a private

  • Ministry using ChatGPT AI to ‘ease workload’; Khmer version planned

    The Digital Government Committee is planning to make a Khmer language version of popular artificial intelligence (AI) technology ChatGPT available to the public in the near future, following extensive testing. On March 9, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications revealed that it has been using the

  • Ministry orders all schools, public and private, to close for SEA Games

    From April 20 to May 18, all public and private educational institutions will be closed to maintain order and support Cambodia's hosting of the 32nd SEA Games and 12th ASEAN Para Games, said a directive from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. Cambodia will host the

  • Wat Phnom hornbills attract tourists, locals

    Thanks to the arrival of a friendly flock of great hornbills, Hour Rithy, a former aviculturist – or raiser of birds – in Kratie province turned Phnom Penh tuk tuk driver, has seen a partial return to his former profession. He has become something of a guide

  • Almost 9K tourists see equinox sunrise at Angkor Wat

    Nearly 9,000 visitors – including 2,226 international tourists – gathered at Angkor Wat on March 21 to view the spring equinox sunrise, according to a senior official of the Siem Reap provinical tourism department. Ngov Seng Kak, director of the department, said a total of 8,726 people visited Angkor Wat to