When You Should (and Shouldn’t) Call the Police, According to a Trial Lawyer
Internet common sense makes it clear when to go to the police: never. While there’s a lot to be said for this philosophy, the Internet is also often grossly misunderstood, and the phrase “never talk to a cop” has always struck me as overly simplistic. Sure, the Fifth Amendment says you can’t be forced to testify against yourself, and it’s nice to tell the cops to back off instead of saying “yes, officer,” but how well does that work in practice?
I spoke to Chicago attorney Harold Wallin for answers. Wallin has over 25 years of experience defending drunk driving cases, so he has seen just about every kind of interaction imaginable between cops and citizens. It turns out that there are many cases where it is surprisingly better to talk to the police than to pretend.
When exactly should you refuse to answer police questions?
“You should never talk to the police if they suspect you of a crime,” Wallin said. – If a potential client calls me and says: “The policeman wants me to come to the station to find out something,” then they are looking for recognition.
Cops have a lot of leeway when it comes to interrogating people, and they tend to be pretty good at getting people to trip, often using less-than-honest methods. “They will say, ‘Look, I have this nice fat file. I know everything that happened. Your friend told me everything, so I got a confession from him. It would have been easier if you just told me everything and didn’t lie to me because I know what happened,” but they fucking make it all up,” Wallin said. “They don’t know what happened. This is just a guess. This is a common technique used by the police and it is absolutely legal,” he added.
Even if you are innocent and tell the police the whole truth, they can still turn against you. “You can say, ‘I was at home that day with a friend,’ but you may be thinking of another day, and your friend was at work that day, and now, though unintentionally, you have given false testimony that can be used against you,” Wallin said. “You can also depend on what the police will include in the report – if they write a short report and don’t take the transcript, or if it’s not recorded, which may or may not be… As a general rule, lawyers don’t want a client made a statement.”
Therefore, if you are suspected of a serious crime, do not contact the police, and if you are arrested, ask for a lawyer.
But what about when it’s not so serious? Many interactions between police and citizens are routine and do not involve handcuffing or hiring lawyers. It is in these more common skirmishes that the advice to “say nothing” does not necessarily apply.
When (and why) you should sometimes respond to police actions
Specifics vary from state to state, but even in the country’s most police-friendly parts of the country, citizens are usually required to do nothing more than provide identification and proof of insurance and register with a police officer at a stop. You are under no obligation, as a general rule, to assist in police investigations, to be courteous to the police, or to do anything other than follow their lawful orders. However, yelling “I know my rights, pig” is probably not the best thing to do if you’re stopped. Of course, you have the right to chat, but in practice this probably won’t work for you, especially if your goal is to end the meeting as quickly as possible.
“It’s really a concrete fact,” Wallin said. “If you are standing at a stop and speeding, you will be fined, but if you are taking your pregnant wife to the hospital or you have some other reasonable excuse, you may be fined. Warning… if you’re good with them, you might want to take a break.”
“Usually they use these stops as a way to catch something else. It’s great for them to get a speeding ticket or something, but they really want to see if you have drugs in your car, a gun in your car, if you’re suspended from a driver’s license, or if you’re intoxicated.” Wallin said. “If you get pulled over for doing 75 out of 65 and now you’re acting very evasive and weird and you refuse to talk to them, yes, that will raise the level of suspicion.”
An evasive or belligerent attitude draws more attention. According to Wallin, if you lash out at a cop for not talking to cops, “it could be evidence in a court of law…it could be used against you at least as an indication of guilt and just general belligerence — not necessarily to prove a case against the person, but as an indication that the person may have felt guilty and did not want to speak.”
You should also probably talk to the police if you witnessed a crime, just to be a good person – and because the authorities could potentially force you to testify in court if what you saw is important. “Your job as a citizen is to be a good person and tell them what happened,” Wallin said.
Sometimes about how you refuse to talk to the cops.
If for any reason you decide to refuse to answer questions from a police officer, it is important how you do it. Again, literally anything you say can be used against you. “[If you’ve been pulled over for drunk driving] don’t say, ‘I’ve already had three drunk driving incidents and my lawyer told me not to go to the police if it ever happened again,'” Wallin said. “The correct answer would be ‘I don’t want to talk’ and don’t add why you don’t want to talk.”
Policemen are people, and people are different
There is nothing in the law that says you have to consider the humanity of the quislings as the executive body of the state, but your life will probably be easier if you do. “The cops are just like everyone else,” Wallin explained. “They have different personalities. Some professionals. If you say “no”, they will say “OK” and move on to the next step in their investigation. Others may take it personally and think, “You are the enemy. You’re a criminal, you’re just committing a crime again.” Keep this in mind and respond accordingly, whether you choose to cooperate or not.