The investigating officer who has already made every mistake
Before Elicit, an investigating officer's first real encounter with a hostile suspect, a traumatised victim, or an evasive fraudster is the actual interview. That is not training. That is the thing training was supposed to prevent.
Elicit changes when the mistakes happen - from the interview room to the training room.
The gap between knowing PEACE and using it under pressure
Forces run PIP training. What they cannot easily provide is the volume of deliberate, supervised practice that changes how an investigating officer actually behaves in the interview room.
-
1
Supervised practice does not scale to need Senior investigators are stretched; role-players are expensive and hard to schedule; new recruits get two or three practice sessions before their first real interview. Research confirms how much this matters: only 1 in 4 PEACE-trained investigators showed meaningful improvement over untrained peers - not because PEACE doesn't work, but because training without deliberate practice to embed it rarely does (Walsh and Milne, 2008)*. Elicit removes the constraint entirely - your investigators can practise as often as they need, whenever they need.
-
2
HMICFRS inspects evidence, not intentions When HMICFRS examines your investigative capability, an attendance record for a training day is not a defensible answer. The March 2025 HMICFRS thematic report found that in nearly every force, half the teams investigating rape and serious sexual offences had not completed PIP Level 2 - and the national shortfall in accredited investigators more than doubled from 4,353 to 9,441 between 2018 and 2024**. Inspectors want evidence that training changed behaviour over time - performance data showing question-type ratios, PEACE phase coverage, and measurable improvement across sessions. That is what every Elicit debrief produces, automatically.
-
3
The cost of mistakes falls on real investigations An investigating officer who asks a leading question during a sensitive victim interview, mishandles a hostile suspect, or fails to elicit a critical account detail - these are not training failures. They are investigation failures. Baldwin's landmark analysis of 600 real police interviews found that in nearly 40% of cases, the interviewing officer made no challenge at all to the suspect's account***. Elicit is where those mistakes happen first, in a controlled environment, with structured feedback that makes the next session better.
-
4
New law, new accountability - and the statutory guidance is still coming The Crime and Policing Act 2026 (s.65) created a dedicated cuckooing offence on 29 April 2026 - the first time UK law has specifically criminalised the takeover of a vulnerable person's home for drug supply. The Secretary of State has yet to issue statutory guidance to forces under s.69. Over 6,500 county lines operate across England, Scotland, and Wales; NPCC data shows 44% of cuckooing victims are women, with high rates of co-occurring mental health and substance misuse issues******. Under the government's Violence Against Women and Girls performance framework, Chief Constables are now formally accountable for VAWG outcomes in a way that has no precedent. The investigators who will be doing these interviews exist in your force today. The guidance will arrive before your training infrastructure does if you wait.
From first witness to hostile suspect - every interview your investigating officers face.
Each scenario places the investigating officer opposite a different type of interview subject. Every subject's responses are precisely calibrated to remain authentic throughout the session, so no two sessions play out identically. A selection from the library is shown below.
A nervous young person who wants to help but struggles to organise their account. The challenge is building enough rapport to unlock a coherent, unprompted narrative - without contaminating it with leading questions.
Cooperative and wants to help, but has genuine knowledge gaps - he only caught the end of the incident, and his phone video starts too late. Exercises working with an incomplete account without filling gaps through leading questions.
Not hostile, but deeply reluctant. Has two children and fears reprisal. Exercises sustained rapport-building, managing long silences, and eliciting a full account from someone who has made a calculated decision that silence is safer.
A victim who is prone to shutting down, minimising harm, and protecting the person who hurt them. Exercises trauma-informed interviewing, pacing, non-leading recall facilitation, and recognising the indicators of reluctance without applying pressure.
Intelligent and practiced at redirecting questions. Exercises handling of deflection, use of evidential challenges, and structured probing. Includes "no comment" dynamics and the challenge of a suspect who cooperates on the surface while giving nothing of substance.
A suspect who questions the legitimacy of the interview, escalates under pressure, and tests the investigating officer's ability to maintain structure and professional composure. Exercises de-escalation, controlled authority, and keeping the interview on track when the subject is actively trying to disrupt it.
Cooperative witnesses, bystanders with incomplete accounts, first victim contact. Exercises fundamental rapport, open questioning, and eliciting a full unprompted account without contamination. The right starting point for new investigators and those refreshing core technique.
Reluctant witnesses, domestic abuse victims, intimidated and vulnerable adults. Exercises trauma-informed pacing, sustained engagement, and eliciting coherent accounts from subjects who have decided that caution may be safer than full disclosure.
Evasive fraudsters, hostile detainees, no-comment suspects. Exercises PACE interview structure, evidence deployment, handling strategic deflection, and maintaining professional authority when the subject is actively trying to derail the process.
Built on the frameworks your operations run on
Investigative interviewing does not happen in isolation. Your investigators work inside operational frameworks - from PEACE for the interview itself, to the wider Clear-Hold-Build architecture that governs how your force responds to organised crime, county lines, and exploitation. Elicit scenarios are designed with that context built in, not bolted on.
Enforcement and suspect interviews
The interview suite is where enforcement operations deliver their results. An officer who has already practised against a prepared no-comment suspect, a hostile detainee, and an evasive fraudster does not walk into their first real enforcement interview cold. Elicit scenarios train the skills that Clear-phase operations depend on.
Welfare, victim, and intelligence interviews
Holding a community means being present with the people most at risk - and being able to gather the evidence and intelligence that prevents reoccupation. The Crime and Policing Act 2026 (s.65) has given investigators a specific cuckooing offence to charge - but with statutory guidance still pending and 44% of cuckooing victims being women, Hold-phase interviews sit squarely in VAWG territory. Interviews with cuckooing victims, reluctant witnesses in county lines cases, and vulnerable adults in exploitation scenarios are the interviews most likely to go wrong, and the most consequential when they do.
First contact and diversion interviews
Build-phase outcomes depend on investigators who can establish trust with people who have every reason not to trust them. First-contact interviews with at-risk young people, community intelligence gathering, and structured conversations with individuals being diverted from criminal pathways all require the same core skills: open questioning, rapport, and the discipline not to contaminate an account.
Elicit is built to deploy alongside FCDO preferred suppliers and international policing partners in stabilisation and capacity-building programmes overseas. The same framework-aware design that underpins the Elicit domestic library applies to the international library - whether the context is a UK force secondment, a Commonwealth policing partnership, or a stabilisation-phase programme commissioned through CSSF or equivalent mechanisms. Get in touch to discuss international applications.
Every session maps to the standards that matter
Elicit is built around the PEACE model - the College of Policing nationally recognised framework for investigative interviewing. Suspect and caution-based scenarios are conducted in compliance with PACE requirements. Every session produces structured evidence against all five PEACE phases.
Where Elicit supports your PIP1 and PIP2 evidence trail
- Demonstrate knowledge of the PEACE model phases and their purpose
- Conduct a structured interview with an appropriate account-phase opening
- Identify and avoid leading and multiple questions
- Handle a reluctant or nervous subject with appropriate pacing and rapport
- Demonstrate correct administration of the PACE caution in suspect interviews
- Produce or contribute to a written interview record
What HMICFRS inspectors look for - what Elicit produces
- Evidence that training changed interviewing behaviour, not just attendance records
- Session-level performance data showing measurable improvement over time
- Individual trainee records that can be presented per officer on request
- Consistent methodology applied across all trainees
- Cohort-level analytics showing force-wide competency development
Every training activity your officers do, visible in one place
Elicit sessions are one part of an investigator's development. Real interviews conducted on duty, CPD events attended, reflective notes after a difficult case - none of that is currently visible to supervisors unless the officer volunteers it. The Personal Development Log changes that.
Log real activity, not just simulator sessions
Officers record every training-related activity - a hostile suspect interview conducted on shift, a course attended, a difficult case they reflected on. Confidence ratings against specific skills give supervisors a real picture of where each officer feels under-prepared - before that gap becomes a problem in a live interview. The platform dashboard gives each officer a running record of simulation sessions and development log entries, ready to support CPD evidence requirements at any time.
Supervisors see what they currently cannot
A supervisor or line manager can see session scores from Elicit. With the PDL they also see the full picture: hours in simulation, hours logged in real practice, confidence trends across skills over time. Research found that 51% of UK forces had no interview supervision or assessment policy**** - meaning most officers had never had a recorded interview formally assessed. Development conversations become specific. Blind spots surface before they cause problems in a real interview.
The structured record HMICFRS wants to see
When an inspector asks for evidence of PIP development, you hand them a complete training record for each officer - Elicit session scores alongside every activity the officer logged. Not a course attendance sheet. A structured, timestamped, skill-mapped record of actual development over time.
Simulation training that moves the needle
time
See Elicit with your scenarios
We run live demonstrations with our avatar-on system, using the policing scenarios.
Get in touch to arrange a session for your team.