Prof Laurence Alison

Articles by: Prof Laurence Alison

Top 10 tips for interviewing: The ORBIT approach to suspect interviewing

1st July 2021

Professor Laurence Alison, Ground Truth

ANALYSIS: Interviewing techniques used in the UK by law enforcement and the security services have improved considerably over the last two decades, but leading expert Prof Laurence Alison believes some simple errors and areas of confusion still remain; here, ahead of this month’s Rapid-Fire Conference on Investigative Interviewing, he sets out 10 top tips for interviewing and building a rapport with interviewees.

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Prof Laurence Alison

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Professor Laurence Alison is a leading expert with the Ground Truth team, and focuses on high-profile critical and major incidents, from disaster management to terrorism). Prof Alison has over 28 years of experience working on applied projects for law enforcement and the security services. He currently provides training to FBI/CIA/DoD, The UKs National Counter-Terrorism interviewing cadre and the British Army in the ORBIT framework for rapport-based interrogation methods. He was key psychological advisor on over 450 critical and major incidents debriefs including the 7/7 bombings, the Sharm El Sheik attacks, the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the preparations for the London Olympics. He was key advisor and research on a child sexual exploitation project that resulted in the largest operation in UK police history and which, across a six-month period, led to the arrest of over 1,200 offenders, the safeguarding of over 1,000 children and a cost saving to UK government of £15million. He has over 200 published articles, books, edited books and government and industry reports.