More than 70 per cent of criminal investigations fail to progress because of difficulties with evidence
A new partnership between leading memory researchers and digital evidence platform Kulpa aims to tackle one of the most overlooked causes: the rapid loss of victim and witness memories in the hours and days following an incident
The collaboration will integrate the Self-Administered Interview (SAI) - a research-backed tool - directly into the platform, allowing victims and witnesses to provide richer, more detailed accounts at the earliest stages of an investigation
Research has shown that witnesses using the SAI consistently provided almost 50 per cent more correct details to a standard report form
A new partnership hopes to improve the quality of evidence available to investigators, prosecutors and courts across a range of criminal cases in the UK.
When a crime happens, the memories of people who were there are often amongst the most important information available to investigators. But memory is fragile, and without the right prompts and structured support, witnesses can forget critical details within hours - and those details may never be recovered.
Professor Lorraine Hope , Professor of Applied Cognitive Psychology at the University of Portsmouth , has spent more than two decades with colleagues working on that problem.
The Self-Administered Interview (SAI) , developed by Professor Hope alongside Professor Fiona Gabbert at Goldsmiths, University of London , is a structured written recall tool that guides witnesses through the process of reporting their account without requiring a trained interviewer to be present.
It works by drawing on established principles from cognitive psychology - prompting witnesses to mentally reinstate the context of events and providing systematic retrieval support that helps people access and articulate what they remember.
"We now have a sophisticated understanding of how memory works, how information is forgotten, and critically how it can be supported to enable detailed and accurate reporting," said Professor Hope. "The Self-Administered Interview translates decades of cognitive and forensic psychology research into a practical tool that helps people provide more detailed accounts when events are still fresh in memory."
The universities have now partnered with Kulpa , a secure digital evidence management platform, to make this research-backed approach available more widely. Victims and witnesses will be able to complete an SAI through the Kulpa platform at the earliest opportunity after an incident.
With more than 70 per cent of recorded crime cases currently unable to proceed because of evidential difficulties, the integration directly addresses the challenge of securing accurate information and supporting evidence at key phases of an investigation.
For investigators, prosecutors and courts, this means access to richer, more reliable human evidence alongside the photographs, videos and documents that digital platforms already manage. For victims and witnesses, it offers a structured way to record what they saw or experienced, at a moment when it matters most.
Simon Franc, Founder and CEO at Kulpa said: "At a time when evidential difficulties remain one of the biggest barriers to bringing offenders to justice, this partnership represents an important opportunity to combine leading academic research with practical technology. Our shared goal is simple: to help preserve better evidence earlier, improve outcomes for victims and support more effective investigations."
Across more than a dozen published studies involving over 1,200 participants, witnesses using the SAI have consistently provided more correct detail in their initial accounts than those using standard free recall.
Witnesses who completed an SAI were able to recall almost a third (31 per cent) more correct information in follow-up interviews weeks later, compared with those who had not. It helps lock memories in place, making them less likely to fade or be distorted by later conversations or media coverage.
"Some of the most valuable evidence in an investigation exists only in a person's memory," explained Professor Gabbert. "Yet memory is not a recording device; it fades, changes, and becomes harder to access over time. The earlier we can support people to report what they remember, the better the information available to investigators. What makes this partnership so important is that it brings a scientifically validated approach to memory retrieval into a digital environment that can be used at scale."
In 2019, the College of Policing recommended the SAI in its Guidelines for First Responders as a strategic tool for obtaining initial accounts from victims and witnesses.
It has also been adapted for different types of crime, including missing persons cases, workplace accidents, and road traffic collisions - with each reporting version developed in collaboration with practitioners.
The collaboration between the University of Portsmouth, Goldsmiths, University of London, and Kulpa is particularly relevant in cases, where preserving detailed victim accounts and supporting evidence at the earliest opportunity can play a vital role in improving criminal justice outcomes and increasing the likelihood of successful prosecutions.
