The Police are at the Door, Now What?

When the police contact you, you have no obligation to talk to them. In fact, if the police call you, they’ve already decided that you have some sort of information about a crime. It’s a short jump from thinking you have information about the crime to thinking you were involved in the crime, and that’s a jump you can’t afford for them to make. If the police call you, think about you first. Tell them nicely, politely, and in a non-confrontational fashion that you are totally willing to cooperate but you have to have an attorney at your side first.

One of the truest cautions today comes from the Miranda warning that police read to suspects: “Anything you say can and will be used against you.” What you may not realize is that they don’t have to read this to you until you are officially a suspect. Unfortunately, you might easily say something that makes them decide that you are a suspect. Don’t assume that if you don’t hear those famous words upfront, you’ll never hear them.

When you were little, your parents and teachers probably told you that policemen were your friend. As an adult, they are not your friend. They are public employees, and their job is to solve a crime. Pressure is high to get as many crimes solved as possible, and supervisors are sometimes more concerned with whether or not a crime is marked ’solved’ than whether or not it has been solved correctly. As a result, you must be careful not to talk to police agencies.

If you hear those famous words, the Miranda warning, you have every reason to refuse to say a single word, and no reason to say anything other than “I want an attorney.” If you are placed in the back of a police car for a ride to the station house or to a local processing facility or jail, don’t fall into the trap of conversing with the officers about the weather, how good the lunch was today, or anything else that might seem totally innocent.

Remember, the officers are looking for arrests, and convictions. Every conversation you have will be noted, and used to help prove your state of mind, whether or not you were insane under the law, whether or not you were agitated or showed remorse, and so on. Thus, if you agree the apple pie was great, notes in the police log may reflect that you ate a hearty meal after killing three school children.

Don’t ever talk to the police without the aid of a good criminal attorney. Otherwise, even a minor mistake in what you say will be used to build a case against you. You might even end up prosecuted for making false statements, for impeding an investigation, or even for obstructing justice. This could happen even if your mistake is tiny, for example if your end-of-season bowling party was Saturday and you thought it was Friday. Innocent mistakes will be perceived as deliberate deception.

Door to door searches, where the police are going door to door looking for “witnesses” to a crime, can result in equally bad outcomes. If you let the police in, anything they see or hear in your home can end up drawing unwanted attention to yourself or your family, sometimes in a completely unrelated way. They may be looking for the man who raped a woman the street over, but you may have a vase on the mantle that resembles one stolen three years ago from an antique store. Something this small may make the police and prosecutor decide to tear apart your life. You don’t need that.

The news archives are full of cases where the police have gone from thanking someone for providing information, to be deciding the person was involved. This is especially true the more heinous the crime. In today’s society it is too easy to attract unnecessary police attention. If the police come to your door, don’t expose yourself to the dozens of things that could happen as the result of your desire to ‘be a good citizen.’

Cooperate, but only with a good criminal defense attorney at your side.