The Certified Forensic Interviewer (CFI) designation and examination
came about through the work of professionals from both the public
and private sector who foresaw the need to take the next step in the
defense and professionalization of interviewers.
The development of this concept had it's origin in discussions with
senior executives across the country in both the public and private
sector who were attempting to provide their organizations with the
most effective interviewers. Then, with the advent of DNA testing,
false confessions, and the focus of the media on the process of interviewing
it became clear that merely attending a short class was not a sufficient
credential to defend an organization.
So the question became how does one create a certification examination
to measure an individual's knowledge?
As it turned out this was a much more difficult question than it first
appeared. Just make up a bunch of questions and you have one? This
would certainly be one way to approach the issue, but unfortunately
it would not provide a defensible valid examination that psychometrically
measures an individual's knowledge of the skills core components.
A number of test certification development organizations were interviewed
to assist in the creation of the CFI examination. Each of these companies
had extensive experience in creating national certification examinations
and administering them. In the end, Applied Measurement Professionals
(AMP) was selected to assist in the development and administration
of the examination by the Center for Interviewer Standards and Assessment.
The Advisory Board for the Center was made up of professionals from
both the public and private sectors who gave extensively of their
time to make this vision a reality.
The first step in developing the certification examination was to
conduct a survey of interviewers in both the public and private sectors
to determine the core skills necessary to be competent. Over a thousand
surveys were sent out nationally and evaluated by AMP to determine
the core skills necessary to be an interviewer in the public and private
sector. Statistically looking at the responses from the survey AMP
identified 15 core knowledge sets that were essential to being a competent
interviewer. AMP was also able, based on the responses from the survey,
to determine the number of examination questions which would be assigned
to each of the 15 knowledge sets.
The second step in the process was determining the source material
upon which the questions would be based. The examination was not to
be focused on a single interview method or process, but rather to
test the examinee's knowledge of interview and interrogation over
a broad-based set of sources. For example, if an individual had attended
the WZ interview and interrogation program alone it would be extremely
unlikely that they would even be close to passing the examination.
The survey and the Advisory Board's opinion was that the examination
should cover the knowledge necessary to do an interview in either
the public or private sector using any number of different skills.
Third, an item-writing committee, drawn from the public and private
sectors were assembled to create the actual questions for the examination.
Working with psychometric professionals from AMP, the item writers
constructed hundreds of questions based on the source material which
were selected to be the basis for the examination. Once a question
was created, it was reviewed for accuracy against the source material
and reworked for clarity.
Next, the committee took the examination on several different occasions
to identify problem questions and create data necessary for statistical
evaluation of the questions and overall examination by AMP. The questions
were evaluated in a variety of ways including whether or not they
were discriminatory in any fashion. All this work over several years
resulted in the creation of two examinations totaling 160 questions
each. Every question on the examination is in multiple-choice, which
falls into one of three types. Recall questions, which simply require
the examinee to retrieve information from memory. Application questions,
which require the examinee to use two or more pieces of information
to answer the question or analysis questions, which require the examinee
to integrate numerous pieces of information to obtain the answer.
Each question was repeatedly reviewed by the item-writing committee
for clarity and correctness of response.
Finally, a passing score, or cut-score, had to be determined. This
required that 100 individuals who were not part of the examination
development sit for the test. Based upon the scores achieved by these
100 examinees a passing score was determined statistically by AMP.
The examination also contains 20 questions which will be used to set
the passing score for subsequent tests. This is done so that a later
examination which might be easier or more difficult than the current
one has the same statistical rate. In other words, the passing score
may go up or down depending on the examinations difficulty. The easier
the examination the higher the cut-score, while the more difficult
the examination the lower the cut score.
The Advisory Board of CISA also considered the question of grandfathering
individuals into the certification. Applied Measurement Professionals
strongly discouraged the board from grandfathering anyone into the
certification since it hampers the defensibility of the program. While
this benefits the association in gathering an initial membership,
the Advisory Board felt that in addition to defending the certification,
it failed to reward those who put in the time and effort to study
for and pass the test. In the end it was decided that no one would
be grandfathered into the CFI designation.
There is one last question that needs to be addressed as well. Is
it worth spending the time and effort to obtain a Certified Forensic
Interviewer designation? It's one thing to claim to have the knowledge
to be a good interviewer, but it's another to have an independent
organization certify that the knowledge exists. Times are changing,
and this certification is simply one of those changes. It's merely
a matter of whether one wants to be ahead or behind the curve, and
that's only a question that you can answer.
Center for Interviewer Standards & Assessment Ltd. | 4932 Main Street, Downers Grove, IL 60615-3611
Phone: 630.515.3579 Fax: 630.852.7081 Toll Free 866.616.5800