ABSTRACT

Since the early 2000s Australia and New Zealand have undergone substantial reforms to police practice for interviewing suspects. To understand these reforms it is important to first know about the context of these countries. Australia is a vast continent made up of six States and two Territories with 23.4 million inhabitants and 47,000 police officers. Most of the population is located in the metropolitan areas of these regions, with others living in remote areas that can be difficult to access (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2006). Each State or Territory has its own criminal justice system and police service, with the Australian Federal Police providing an inter-jurisdictional and international crime response. In contrast, New Zealand is a small country with 4.4 million inhabitants and one police organisation that operates under a single governance structure with just over 12,000 employees (New Zealand Police Annual Report, 2014). The English colonised these countries in the late 1700s (Australia) and early-to-mid 1800s (New Zealand), and hence the legal system and policing approaches are similar to those of England and Wales. A police commissioner governs each police service and is accountable to that jurisdiction’s government, but acts as an independent body for law enforcement decisions. Many of the contemporary investigative interviewing practices in these countries have also been adapted from the approaches used in England and Wales.