Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog
Earlier comments on this subject are here and here.
In particular here is the new NCIS policy. NCIS video/audio taping is not new as this report suggests — Naval Criminal Investigative Service: Fraud Interview Policies Similar to Other Federal Law Enforcement Agencies (Letter Report, 04/07/97, GAO/NSIAD-97-117).
In fiscal year 1996, NCIS agents videotaped 56 interviews and 23 interrogations, 51 (or 65 percent) of which involved child abuse cases. Most of the remaining videotapings involved cases of assaults, homicides, and rapes. NCIS fraud agents said that they audiotape very few interviews.
CAAFLog has this interesting item.
This week’s Marine Corps Times has an article on the revised policy’s implementation. Andrew Tilghman, New NCIS policy requires agents to videotape suspect confessions, Marine Corps Times, Oct. 5, 2009, at 18. Unfortunately, the article doesn’t appear to be available online to non-subscribers. The article indicates that “NCIS agents have taped more than 800 interrogations since the policy took effect in September 2008.” The article also states that “the Navy has not allocated the roughly $1.5 million needed to outfit NCIS offices worldwide with video equipment.”
Courtesy of CAAFLog here is the current NCIS policy again.