I'm Furious

I spent last week in a police Interview and Interrogation class.? It was me and 30 cops for a week in a hotel conference room.?

When I entered the room, immediately I could feel the heavy energy.? These folks put their lives on the line every day for our safety and don’t take flack from anyone.?

And the vibe of the room just got heavier all week as we covered not only deception detection but the mindset and motivation of every type of criminal you could think of, all in service of getting a confession.

It got to me.? I felt my typically sunny attitude shift.? Finally on day 3 I asked some of my classmates from the Denver PD if they were experiencing the same thing.? Were they used to it?? Or was this just like every other day??

Surprisingly, they said they agreed.? It was a lot to take in and like me, they’d been cranky in the evenings.? We’re all human and there was just no way to avoid the stress of being around cases like we were being shown.

I kept at it, took care of myself a little more by listening to all the comedy I could when I wasn’t in class and feel like my certificate was well earned.?

The benefit for you is that we can focus on a lot more tools for lie detection.? I sharpened my skills in some areas that I hadn’t paid adequate attention to, like what we’re gonna cover today.

Let’s talk about Verbal Deception

Sometimes the easiest way to find out if someone is lying is to directly ask if they committed the crime.? It can be anywhere from murder to eating a cookie before dinner. Human nature doesn’t change.? This question is a threat.? We’ll automatically go into self protection.

The key is to listen for a strong denial.? It’s easy to get lost in the words they say. They can talk about anything and it will sound good.? ?But ALWAYS ask yourself if it’s a strong denial and specific answer to the question.?

Innocent people will get mad and get madder.? Guilty people will stay calm or if they get mad it will turn off like a light switch.

Take a look at this video of Gary Condit.? Remember him?? He was a US Congressman that was suspected of killing his intern Shandra Levy after an affair.? Here’s some of his interview with Connie Chung.

Notice what he says after he’s asked if he did anything to make her drop out of sight.

This is just a buffet of deception.?

Can you hear how he didn’t deny having anything to do with her disappearance?? He just said they never had a cross word. How dies that have anything to do with the question?? It doesn’t.? But it will slip right by if you’re not paying attention.

?

As the video progresses, here’s a few other things to notice with his verbal tells:

Often he takes the contraction out.? This is a telltale of deception.? Listen closely for how he switches from contractions to non-contracted.?

His blink rate is very low.? Connie and her questions are a threat.

He uses his rehearsed line several times and often cracks a little smile.

Whenever yes or no questions are answered with the word Never, that’s a tell of deception.? We heard that from Johnny Depp in his trial, too.

?

Everyone’s Been Asking…

How did I do in the rankings for the World’s Top Body Language Expert?? I logged in on Feb 1 to find out.? I REALLY wanted that #1 spot.?

I found a message at the top of the page that said the Body Language category was being discontinued.? WHAT???!! I was furious.? I worked hard for all those votes.? And about 1500 of you went out of your way to help me out.

So I called some of the others on the list.? And they were just as shocked.

I decided I wasn’t gonna let these guys keep me down.? So I bought TopBodyLanguageExperts.com.?

I don’t know exactly what will happen with it yet.? Will others at the top want to join me in creating our own ranking system?? Or will it just be a group that comes together to raise awareness of the best in the business? ??We’ll see what happens.? I’m taking this as an opportunity to be a market leader.? Stay tuned for what happens…

ALSO--It's time to book keynotes for 2025. What groups do you know that hire speakers for their conferences or meetings? Can you help me get connected? Send me a DM.