CONVERSATIONAL STRATEGIES IN POLICE INTERROGATION OF DRUG SUSPECTS

The purpose of this research is to find conversational strategies among the police officers and the suspected drug abuse and describe how the police use the conversational strategiese in police interrogation. The research also elaborates the reasons why the conversational strategies are used by the policwas he the way they are. The subjects were four police officers and four suspects drug abuse at the police station in POLDA Sumatera Utara, Medan. It was a qualitative explanative research design of which the instrumentation was observation and interview. The observation was done by taking notes to collect the utterances of the police officers and the suspects. The interview was in-depth interview which administered to the police after they had interrogated the suspects. This was done to know the reasons why they used the conversational strtegies the way they are. The results of the data analysis showed that the police officers used conversational strategies in interrogating the suspects. They are ambiguity, blocking the target’s words, hit and run, ignoring the target when he says “no”, and scripting. Ambiguity strategies are the highest among all. The interrogation was almost begun with questions. Discourse and Conversation Analysis were used to explore what was happening when the police and the suspects used these repertoires. The result of the analysis found two distinctive styles of interrogation with implications, not just for eliciting information from the suspects, but also for admission and denial. The result of in-depth interview showed that it is necessary to realize that the police must have cognitive competence which acquired through intensive and on-going interrogation training programs.