Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Miranda

If I arrest you, I've got to read your your rights. Normally, I take care of that as soon as possible, from a card I keep in my pocket. When you get to jail, they're going to read you your rights and ask you to sign a form that you were read your rights. If a detective asks you questions, he or she is going to read you your rights.

You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney. Etc, etc.

The Supreme Court says that if you don't want to talk to the police, all you have to do is tell them that you don't want to talk to them. If you want a lawyer, all you have to do is say that you want a lawyer. Interview over.

But, if you decide to run your mouth, you can't take it back later. The Court agrees with me.

Many times, an offender just can't help himself. He's got to argue and rant and rave on the way to the jail house. I'll normally remind him one more time that he's got the right to remain silent, then I'll start taking notes, running a recorder if I have one with me, paying attention to what's being said in the back seat of the cruiser. Then, when I do my report, I get to write down all the stuff I heard. Sometimes it's quite illuminating.

2 comments:

Old NFO said...

Good point Paw- ALL that is admissible... :-)

Buffboy said...

I've seen this a lot too. Ron White said it best. Had the right to remain silent, just didn't have the ability.