About Behavioural Analysis: Patrick Kurtz, Owner of Kurtz Detective Agency Potsdam, in the “Long Interview” – Part 2.1

For the format “M19 – The Long Interview” on the radio station Mephisto 97.6, Patrick Kurtz, owner of Kurtz Detective Agency Potsdam and Brandenburg, spoke for an hour with editor-in-chief Paula Drope about the detective profession. In the second part, the focus is on lie detection and behavioural analysis carried out by our private detectives in Potsdam. You can find the first part on typical detective clichés here.

Lie Detection | Behavioural Analysis

Paula Drope: “You handle a really wide range of assignments. You have already mentioned corporate investigations, but also the classic case of adultery, and I found it particularly fascinating that you work with lie detection and behavioural analysis. How should I imagine that?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “That actually comes up relatively rarely in everyday detective work. It is a service offered by Kurtz Detective Agency that is not used very often and is based on the findings of Professor Dr Paul Ekman. He is an American anthropologist who developed a method in the 1970s that allows you to recognise, via micro-expressions, which emotions lie behind certain statements. From that, in turn, the truthfulness can be assessed with a fairly high degree of accuracy if you are well trained. Ideally, you have to practise the method daily using a training programme he published, and if you really master it, you can determine quite reliably whether someone is lying or not.”

Practical Training in Lie Detection

Paula Drope: “If it is not used all that often, do you still train every day?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “I used to train more, I have to say. I no longer do it daily, but weekly.”

 

Paula Drope: “What does that training look like? Does the secretary from your detective agency in Potsdam have to come in and tell you a few made-up stories?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “No, I do most of the training with the tool from Professor Dr Paul Ekman that I mentioned. More precisely, there are two tools from him, which you use alternately and at different speeds. By now, I train at the highest speed, which is also important if you want to recognise micro-expressions reliably in real-life situations. And of course, when I meet people I am talking to, I sometimes run it through in my head as well. I just have to remind myself to do it. It is not an automatic process that kicks in when I speak to someone, like: is he lying or not? I do have to consciously remind myself.”

Paul Ekman: the difference between a genuine smile (left) and a fake smile (right). The corners of the mouth and the cheeks are roughly the same, but only on the left is the orbicularis oculi muscle around the eyes activated, which makes the smile “genuine”. One example: do you know the programme “Die Höhle der Löwen”? Pay attention to Lencke Steiner’s smile when she rejects a deal. The corners of her mouth move, but the muscle around the eyes remains rigid. According to leading experts, voluntary activation of this muscle is only possible when genuine joy is felt or briefly when thinking about joy.

Analysing Micro-Expressions Through Detective Surveillance?

Paula Drope: “Do you simply sit opposite the person you want to see through, the way we are sitting opposite each other now, and ask questions, or does it work more like a kind of detective surveillance, so that the person does not even notice?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “If we have video recordings of the person, then of course you do not have to sit opposite them directly. In that case, the analysis can also be carried out using the video material. However, if we are tasked with determining the truthfulness of complex circumstances, which would be the usual case, then this would be done face to face in a direct interview situation – also supported by video, so that the findings can be substantiated afterwards.”

 

Paula Drope: “How accurate would you say that is?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Difficult to say. I would say at least 95 per cent if video technology is used.”

 

Paula Drope: “That is quite a lot, I would say.”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “The method is recognised in the United States and is used as evidence in many American states. Unfortunately, that is not yet the case in Germany, but perhaps it will be in the future.”

Music Chosen by Detectives | A Colleague’s Song

Paula Drope: “I would like to come back once more to that black-and-white backroom cliché. I just cannot let go of it, I am very sorry. Do you ever have a narrator’s voice in your head that, as you see in television crime dramas about detectives, retells your own story?”

 

Patrick Kurtz (laughs): “No, no.”

 

Paula Drope: “Alright! Nothing can be done about that. Before we continue talking about the profession of private detective – without a narrator’s voice in our heads – and above all about how you became a private detective, we will first play your first musical choice. You asked for ‘Ocean’ by Sap and Saucy. Why this song in particular?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Because the singer and guitarist, who is also the songwriter of this band, is one of my employees and also one of my oldest and best friends. I used to play music myself with two members of this band. That must have been when I was 18 or 19, or even earlier with the guitarist and singer. I think it is an excellent album that did not receive much publicity, and I am happy to give it a little exposure here.”

 

Paula Drope: “So music by a detective from Potsdam: ‘Ocean’ by Sap and Saucy.”

The Long Interview About Detectives – Part 2.2

The next part will follow shortly.

Kurtz Investigations Potsdam and Brandenburg

Gregor-Mendel-Straße 15

D-14469 Potsdam

Tel.: +49 331 2785 0052

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-potsdam.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-potsdam.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-potsdam