EDITORIAL: Video interrogation a smart addition in Suffolk

Far from damaging law enforcement, video recordings of homicide interrogations make for better cases and better detectives. Now Suffolk police - once under a cloud when a 1986 Newsday series found a bogus 94 percent murder confession rate - have that powerful tool. They should embrace it.

The practice is already widely used nationwide but concerns by the police about its impact in many jurisdictions needlessly slowed its introduction. Like the 1966 U.S. Supreme Court decision that led to Miranda warnings, recordings have not destroyed the ability of police to get confessions. The experience of other police departments is that the videotaped interrogation has benefits. If police handle the process properly, a video gives them visual evidence to rebut defense claims of coercion. And if they handle it badly, the video can help train detectives to do better next time - much as football teams study game film.

Taping isn't entirely new. Nassau police began using it in 2009. In Suffolk, cops have recorded confessions - but only after the interrogation is over. That has proved to be of limited value. In early 2008, County Executive Steve Levy called for video recording of interrogations. To find the right vendor and avoid repeating the failure of a recording in Nassau last year, it took almost three years. But now the system's finally ready.

This technology will create more transparency, more airtight cases and ultimately, better detectives. hN