Do you suspect that you’re under investigation for a criminal offense or that the police will come knocking at your door soon to ask you about alleged criminal involvement? If so, you’re probably trying to get a handle on the best way to deal with law enforcement’s questions. But your best option is to keep quiet. In a lot of cases, people end up talking themselves into a criminal conviction by trying to dispel any suspicions that lurk around them.
You don’t want that to happen, which is why you should know how the police try to trick you into talking to them. That way you can be on alert when you come under investigation and can take the appropriate steps to invoke your rights.
Strategies the police use to get you to talk
There are a lot of tactics that the police implement to try to get you talking. Their hope, of course, is to get you to say something incriminating so that you can be charged. To protect yourself, you should be on the lookout for these often-used strategies:
- Acting friendly: The police aren’t required to inform you of your right to remain silent and your right to an attorney if you’re questioned outside of custodial interrogation. Therefore, you’ll want to be leery of law enforcement officers who try to buddy up to you to try to get you to talk. Remember, they’re just trying to get you to say something that they can use against you.
- Making promises: When the police talk to you, they might make promises to try to lure you into talking. This might include lessening the charges filed against you, lightening the penalties you’ll face, or even saying that you’ll get off without facing any criminal charges. However, only the prosecutor can make those promises and adhere to them. So, don’t take the police at their word when they start making you promises.
- Threatening you: The police can get aggressive when they don’t get what they want. As a result, you may be subjected to threats, whether they pertain to prosecution or even physical harm. These tactics are extremely coercive and likely illegal. So, don’t let the police frighten you into saying something that you shouldn’t say.
- Lying to you: The police are allowed to lie to you when they’re questioning you. This can be an effective way to get you to talk, as you may feel compelled to try to explain away whatever it is that the police are presenting to you. Law enforcement might claim that they have evidence against you or that someone has implicated you in the crime, but don’t trust what the police are saying to you.
- Using leading questions: The way that the police ask you questions can put you at risk, too. This is because they tend to use leading questions that are easy to agree with. But if you do end up talking to the police, make sure that you’re not just agreeing with whatever they say.
Know how to protect your interests during a police investigation
There’s certainly a lot on the line when you’re under investigation for criminal wrongdoing. To protect yourself as fully as possible in these matters, you need to know how to defend yourself against aggressive and tricky police investigatory tactics. If you think that you could use some help in that regard, you might want to think about reaching out to an experienced criminal defense attorney for assistance.