By Attorney James Czarnecki|Czarnecki & Taylor PLLC|NOV 2, 2022
If you are a suspect or have been arrested, never talk to the police.
If you are a suspect or have been arrested by the police, do not make a statement without first consulting with a criminal defense attorney. You cannot talk your way out of a criminal charge, so don’t try it. The police want to speak with you so that you can make their job easier. They want a confession or admission.
Many people know they should not talk to the police without an attorney. It is a simple rule, and many people know it well. However, despite this knowledge, too many people talk to the police because they do not want to appear guilty. People also mistakenly believe that if they hire a lawyer, the detective will assume they have something to hide. That isn’t true.
This article explains the many reasons you should not talk to the police without an attorney, even if you are completely innocent.
If you are facing criminal charges and have been contacted by law enforcement for questioning, it is important to contact a lawyer immediately. A good criminal defense attorney can help protect your rights and ensure that any statements that you make are accurate and will not be used against you during trial. They can also advise you on how best to respond when dealing with the police so as not to incriminate yourself or jeopardize your case. It is always better to be safe than sorry when dealing with the police, especially if you are facing criminal charges.
Why do the police want to talk to me?
The police want to talk to you because you are a suspect in a crime and they want you to be off your guard. The police want to speak with you when you are nervous and vulnerable. The detective wants you to talk. He or she wants you to slip and blurt things out. They want you to make mistakes so they can use them against you. Do not forget that a police officer’s job is to get admissions and evidence from a person.
The police do not want you to be prepared. The police know you should consult with a lawyer. They know it is against your best interest to be unprepared. When you believe the police are giving you only one opportunity to explain yourself, they are pressuring you to act against your best interest even though you know you should get a lawyer. Without an attorney, you do not want to have time to collect your thoughts or understand the legal significance of your situation. They certainly know that, without an attorney, it is an experienced police officer vs. a civilian. The odds are in their favor.
You will not win this encounter. It’s not a fair fight. The detectives have been interrogating people for a long time. They possess a lot of experience in interrogating suspects. That is what they are trained to do. Most detectives sharpen their skills over years of practice. You can even the playing field by hiring an experienced criminal defense attorney. Only an experienced criminal defense lawyer will adapt to the detectives’ tactics so that you will avoid a confession or prevent a misstatement. Your attorney may even decline a discussion with the detective.
When you go alone, you have inexperience, fear, uncertainty, and anxiety working against you. You have not been in this situation before. Even if you have, the police possess all the information. They are in control of the whole situation. That is where they want you. Their experience allows them to exploit your vulnerability. Because of this pressure, people confess. Even worse, innocent people confess to crimes that they did not commit. Often, the confession is the only piece of evidence they have against you.
One pressure-filled tactic that officers frequently employ involves a false scenario. Police officers often tell people that if they do not talk with them, they “will not help you out” later with the prosecutor. This is wrong and manipulative. But it is legal. Attorneys know better.
Think about this for a moment; a police officer can legally lie to you. They can lie about the evidence. The detective can lie without fear of consequences. Attorneys, judges, and prosecutors cannot lie. Based on that fact alone, you should never talk to the police without a lawyer.
Another coercive tactic is seen quite often in television shows. You have seen this scenario play out on shows like the “First 48” or “Law and Order.” The police officer tells the suspect, “talk now, or else your friend in the other room will tell us you did it.” The detective is making the suspect rush into making a statement or confession.
I want you to know that a lawyer does not damage your ability to talk to the police and secure a deal. There will always be another opportunity to talk to the police.
When can the police legally begin their interrogation of a suspect?
When police officers make an arrest, they commonly want to interrogate (question) the suspect. Usually, they are trying to make the prosecutor’s case stronger by getting a confession. An interrogation can also lead to other evidence or other suspects.
If a person has been formally arrested, the police cannot begin questioning until the police read the suspect their Miranda rights. This is called a custodial interrogation. Only after the person agrees to give up his right to remain silent and not have an attorney present can an interrogation begin. Essentially, the police want you to give up rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
People can give up the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney. But, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that a person’s ability to waive their Miranda rights depends on knowledge of the rights and free will. Free will means that you gave up your rights freely and not because of duress, coercion, violence, food, and sleep deprivation.
Unlike a custodial interrogation, if you go to the police department voluntarily, they can begin questioning you right away. They may not even read you the Miranda rights. They usually inform the person that they are not under arrest and are free to go at any time. This is how the police get around the right to remain silent and the right to counsel. Therefore, you must contact an attorney as soon as possible if you are wanted for questioning.
What if I am innocent? Should I still avoid talking to the police without a lawyer?
Yes. An individual should not talk to the police even if they are innocent of the alleged crimes. Law Professor Explains why you should remain silent. Good, honest people believe the best about the police and criminal investigations. People often tell me, “I did nothing wrong, so I can clear this up by talking with the police.” They also believe nothing can go wrong because they are telling the truth. Unfortunately, telling the truth may end up hurting you. I know it is a negative thing to say. Still, as a criminal defense attorney for over two decades, I have seen client interrogations on video and taken part in them many times. The police are trying to charge you with a crime.
There are many reasons you should not talk to the police without your lawyer present. One reason is that anything you say to the police can be used against you in a court of law. If you do not have a lawyer present when you are being questioned or interrogated by the police, they may try to get you to incriminate yourself or falsely confess to a crime that you did not commit. In addition, the police may use any statements that you make against you during trial, even if those statements were made under duress or without proper legal counsel.
Many people believe that if they go to the police station and explain themselves, they can talk their way out of a criminal charge. This seldom happens. To clear themselves from any wrongdoing, an innocent person often tries to explain and talk a little too much. The more the detective gets the person to talk, the more likely it is that they will make a mistake. An innocent person may mistakenly tell a “white lie” to stay consistent with their innocence. That white lie may come back to haunt you if the detective exposes the lie.
An innocent person may not recall certain facts accurately. Now imagine that you are trying to remember facts under pressure and duress of an interrogation. You will make a mistake. See this article for additional information.
If you mistakenly tell a police officer an incorrect fact, and the detective knows it, the detective will believe you are lying to cover up for something. For example, suppose a person mistakenly tells the detective that they were at Burger King on Friday night but they were actually at McDonald’s.
If the detective has evidence showing that the individual was in fact, at McDonald’s the detective will question the truthfulness of the person’s entire statement. An innocent person may unwillingly talk themselves into unnecessary trouble.
Another reason it is important to keep quiet when dealing with the police is because anything you say might be taken out of context or inaccurately interpreted by the police. This is particularly true if you are being questioned in a stressful or intimidating situation, as you may say something that sounds incriminating but may not actually apply to the case. The police may try to get you to provide them with evidence against yourself, or even someone else involved in the case, without your knowledge or consent.
You also face the risk of human error made by the detective. What if, during the discussion, the detective remembers a fact wrong and puts that in the notes? If the police officer ever had to take the stand in a trial, they will testify what the notes state. At trial, it becomes a credibility contest between the accused and the police officer. Unfortunately, juries are biased towards the police.
You do not have to talk to the police.
There is a benefit for refusing to talk to the detective. If you tell your story only at trial, you weaken the prosecutor’s ability to challenge your statement because they don’t know what you will say. If you tell your version of events a few times, the chances are very high that, even if you are telling the truth, you may make a mistake while testifying, that is, if you choose to testify. The inconsistency damages your credibility. A skilled prosecutor will notice the discrepancies and question you to persuade the jury that you are lying.
Under no circumstances are you obligated to prove your innocence by talking to the police. It is the prosecutor’s burden to prove your guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. You do not have to assist them by making statements. Explaining yourself is often a useless endeavor. The more you try to convince them of your innocence, the more likely they will assume you are hiding something. In Hamlet, William Shakespeare wrote, “methinks thou dost protest too much.” Shakespeare suggested that people who protest their innocence “too much” are probably guilty of whatever they have been accused of committing. Excessive explaining can be a sign of a guilty conscience.
So, if in Shakespeare’s time they believed that excessive explanation could be interpreted as a sign of guilt, what do you think the police believe today? “Protesting too much” is really a sign of nervousness and emotional stress. If people are accused of something that they did not do, they will profess their innocence under stress in excessive ways.
Do not give in to the pressure to immediately talk to the police. You do not have an obligation to explain yourself. Emotional stress, duress, and pressure can lead to a monetary lapse of judgment or recollection. This is especially true if you feel intimidated or pressured. While under duress, it is very easy to make a mistake that can be interpreted as a sign of guilt.
You have the right to remain silent – Invoking your Miranda rights
Exercise your Fifth Amendment rights.
An individual possesses a constitutional right to not talk to the police. The Fifth Amendment states in part: “No person shall be . . . compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself . . . . Every person subject to a police interrogation should exercise this right.”
If a person voluntarily walks into a police station to have a conversation with the detective, they waive their Miranda rights. The Miranda protections will not apply.
Miranda protections only apply if the person is subject to a “custodial interrogation.” This means the person was arrested. If someone has been arrested or detained and cannot leave of his or her own free will, that person is”in custody” for Miranda purposes. If the individual is in custody, the police must read the Miranda warnings before the police can legally start questioning. If the police do not read the Miranda warnings to a person in custody, the statement/confession and the evidence that flows from that statement can be suppressed as a violation of the Fifth Amendment.
If a person voluntarily walks into the police station to talk to a detective, the Miranda warnings may not apply. Unlike an arrested person, if an individual feels they can leave the police station, they are in a non-custodial environment. Statements people make in response to non-custodial police questioning can be used against the individual even if the Miranda warnings have not been given because Miranda rights only apply to custodial interrogations.
The difference between a custodial and non-custodial interrogation is often why police ask people to come into the police station on their own to “talk” or “clear things up.” The police will often tell people that they are not under arrest and can leave at any time. When the police resort to such a tactic, all of the odds are in their favor. Don’t give them that advantage.
The Miranda warnings (for custodial interrogations) are quite clear:
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you? With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?“
You have an absolute right to remain silent. That means you do not have to talk to the police if that is your choice. You also possess the right to have a lawyer present with you during questioning. The police read you the Miranda warnings so that you know that you have a choice.
If you unequivocally tell the police, before or during interrogation, that you want to stop talking, the interrogation must cease. If you tell the police you want an attorney, the questioning must end until an attorney is present.
Exercise your Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
Your request for a lawyer must be clear and unequivocal
If you invoke your Miranda rights, the law provides that all police questioning must stop once a person requests counsel. To invoke the Miranda protections, you must clearly state that you want an attorney. Simply telling the officers that you do not feel like answering questions does not invoke Miranda protections. If your request for a lawyer is not clear, the police may try to convince you to keep talking.
Therefore, when faced with police interrogation, you must invoke your right to counsel. This means you must clearly and unequivocally tell the police officers you will not answer questions until you have consulted with your attorney.
Here is an example of how outrageous the situation can be if you do not make your request for an attorney explicitly clear. This is a true story. The case involved a man who willingly agreed to speak with detectives. But, when the suspect realized the police accused him of child rape, he told them, “I know that I didn’t do it, so why don’t you just give me a lawyer dog ’cause this is not what’s up.” The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that when a suspect asks for an attorney, the interrogation must end, and the police must provide access to a lawyer. However, the detectives kept on questioning the suspect. The prosecutor used the suspect’s statements at trial to convict him.
He appealed this issue to the state supreme court. The court held: “the defendant’s ambiguous and equivocal reference to a ‘lawyer dog’ does not constitute an invocation of counsel that warrants termination of the interview.”
The court’s ruling is nonsense. No one could reasonably believe that the suspect wanted a dog with a law license to represent him. The suspect was using slang. Instead of “dog”, he meant “dawg” regarding the officer. Instead of saying, “I want a lawyer, sir,” he said, “I want a lawyer, dawg.” See this Washington Post article and this article as well.
So, if we can learn anything from this example, just say, “I want a lawyer to represent me.”
An attorney will know if it is wise to talk to the police.
Your criminal defense lawyer will help you decide if you should give a statement to the police. They can assist you with that statement as well. At times, the refusal to cooperate with the police is not a good idea. At times, it is. But, without experience, you will not know what decision is the best to make.
Our team of experienced criminal defense attorneys will help you.
If you find yourself in a situation where the police want to talk to you, it is important to seek the help of a skilled criminal defense attorney. Our attorneys have extensive knowledge and experience dealing with all types of criminal charges, including those that arise from police interrogation.
At first, it may seem like talking to the police is not a big deal. But there are many potential consequences of speaking with law enforcement without an attorney present. The police will use any information that you provide against you in court and could even try to get a confession or other incriminating statement from you during the interrogation process. In addition, anything you say can be taken out of context or twisted by the police into something else entirely. This can make it extremely difficult to build a strong defense later on.
Fortunately, our skilled criminal defense attorneys can help you navigate the complex legal system and protect your rights during police interrogation. Our attorneys have the knowledge, skill, and experience needed to effectively advocate for you.
At Czarnecki & Taylor, we have experience handling nearly every type of Michigan criminal case. Whether you have been charged with a misdemeanor or felony, our experienced attorneys can help you achieve the best possible outcome in your case.
One thing that sets our team apart from other firms is our ability to handle complex cases that require specialized knowledge and experience. Our firm’s impressive track record for success is unparalleled for achieving exceptional results. Czarnecki & Taylor has a well-earned reputation among judges, courts, city attorneys, prosecutors, police, and other defense attorneys for defending our clients.
So, if you need help dealing with police interrogation, it is important to speak with one of our criminal defense attorneys as soon as possible. With our help your interests are well-represented.
Contact Czarnecki & Taylor
Do the police want to talk to you? We will help you. Czarnecki & Taylor’s experienced attorneys will handle your case with care and help you through every step of the process. For a free consultation, call us today at (586) 718-2345 or online for a prompt response. We are available 24/7 and have weekend and evening appointments.