Why you should never talk to the police

[andrewducker]

A brilliant lecture by a defense attorney explaining why it is never in your interests to talk to the police:

The bit at the end where a police detective talks about why he's right, and what they do to get a confession is also fascinating.

I didn't watch it when it first made the rounds a couple of years back, but thanks to annwfyn Julie and I watched it this morning, and I'm very glad we did. It's worth the time.

Comments

[miss_s_b]

The problem with this, in the UK at least, is that silence can be taken as a bad thing, thanks to dear old Jack Straw.

[andrewducker]

See useful comments by a barrister on my lj.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Although things may work a little differently in the UK of course. The usual statement in the UK is:

"You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence."

Which implies pretty heavily that evidence in court in the UK collected in a police interview can be used to help the defense...

[andrewducker]

That's just saying that if you don't mention it now, but do mention it later then they might find that suspicious.

[fearmeforiampink]

And that, legally, they're allowed to find it suspicious, to give it weight as an argument against you.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

This, for the reasons marrog has mentioned, is not as it stands good advice in England. (I am not entirely sure of the situation in Scotland but I believe it is similar.)

The best advice here is not to talk to the police without a lawyer present, and if your lawyer indicates that you should not answer a question, you should say that you have no comment. A lawyer qualified for police work will also be familiar with PACE Code C and the rules for how long you can be questioned before charge.

If you refuse to comment or fail to explain physical evidence associating you with a crime when being questioned, and then later seek to provide and explanation at trial that you could reasonably have given at the time if it was true, the jury is entitled in English law to take this into account when assessing your credibility. There are in fact plenty of circumstances when it is quite reasonable not to comment, but a lawyer is best placed to advise when this is.

If you find yourself in police custody, do not answer questions until you have a lawyer. The police may well say that it will take time to find one; if so, say that you will wait. They cannot question you without a lawyer until you waive your right to one, but time limits for custody start running straight away. I've had clients be pushed into talking to the police without a lawyer, and I've ended up spending a good deal of time in court showing why what appear to be damaging admissions in the subsequent interview should in fact be disregarded. Much better had they waited for a lawyer.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

To me this ('this' being 'talk to them but not without a lawyer') seems like a much saner arrangement that should be more helpful to both police and suspect - any thoughts?

[fearmeforiampink]

It may well be saner for society as a whole. But in a country which has something like the fifth amendment existing, then the "don't say anything" is probably still the best advice from the interviewee's point of view.

[andrewducker]

Thank you, good advice, which I shall remember if I ever end up dealing with the police!

[daveon.livejournal.com]

My father's version of the police was never speak to police at the scene of an incident unless you are under caution. His "talk" with us as Copper to Children was all the same. Say you're in shock, you're not feeling well and can you come in the morning and make a statement.

His other set of rules were, if informed that we might be in a situation where the law might be broken i.e. drinking underage - he would never want to hear that this had taken place...

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

IAWTC. This is very much the same as my understanding of the best advice for England-and-Wales.

I'd only add that, if at all possible, get a solicitor of your own rather than the duty solicitor. The duty solicitor is way better than none, though.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I mean, I've very glad to see someone with actual knowledge of UK law commenting on the advice, but for comparison, I didn't interpret the title of the talk that literally, I assumed he meant "don't talk to the police without a soliciter present, get a solicitor as soon as you can, and do what they suggest" not "don't talk to the police, even if your solicitor tells you what it's ok to say". I mean, it looks like it may well be different here, for all the reasons mentioned, but you still suggested not talking to the police until you have a solicitor, which is what I interpreted him as saying. (I may be wrong on that, but I feel all of his examples were of people who didn't have a solicitor yet, and he didn't give any that I noticed where someone had talked to the police on their solicitor's advice and then been gazumped.)

[naath.livejournal.com]

So, supposing I get arrested; and I'm sitting there thinking "damn, I could do with a lawyer right about now". Where do I find one? Do I just pick one out of the phone book? If I know the name and phone number of the lawyer I want does that look suspicious (you'd only know which criminal lawyer you want if you anticipated needing one...)?

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

If you're in England, then ask the police to contact the duty solicitor (indeed, the police are likely to suggest this unless you have your own choice in mind). This isn't a solicitor employed by the police; rather, there will be a rota of local law firms with lawyers accredited for police station work, and one of them will have a lawyer on call. This is free, although the Govt is currently proposing to introduce a means test, which not surprisingly has upset a lot of people.