An interview is a conversation between a police officer and another person, who could be a victim or witness, about an event. Interviews can be less structured, and the goal is to put the other person at ease so that he or she will tell the police officer what he or she knows.

The interrogation, on the other hand, involves the suspicion on the part of the police officer that the person he or she is speaking with is somehow involved in the event. The goal of an interrogation is to get the person to admit guilt or involvement in the incident under investigation, and therefore it is more structured than an interview. In addition, the person the police officer is speaking with must be informed of his or her rights. Interrogations can be accusatory in nature, meaning that the person the police officer is speaking to is accused of having committed a crime upfront and has to confirm or deny it. Other interrogations can be non-accusatory or non-confrontational, meaning that the police officer attempts to get information out of the person without accusing him or her of a crime. In both interview and interrogations, police officers must use keen powers of observations to understand who they are speaking with and to try to patiently get information out of them.