Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Talk To The Police

1. Talking to the police cannot help you.

2. Even if you’re guilty, and you want to confess and get it off your chest, you still shouldn’t talk to the police.

3. Even if you are innocent, it’s easy to tell some little white lie in the course of a statement.

4. Even if you are innocent, and you only tell the truth, and you don’t tell any little white lies, it is possible to give the police some detail of information that can be used to convict you.

5. Even if you were innocent, and you only tell the truth, and you don’t tell any little white lies, and you don’t give the police any information that can be used against you to prove motive or opportunity, you still should not talk because the possibility they might not recall your statement with 100% accuracy.

6. Even if you’re innocent, and you only tell the truth, and your entire statement is videotaped so that the police don’t have to rely on their memory, an innocent person can still make some innocent assumption about a fact or state some detail about the case they overheard on the way to the station, and they will assume that the only way the suspect could have known that fact or that detail was if he was, in fact, guilty.

7. Even if you’re innocent, and you only tell the truth in your statement, and you give the police no information that can be used against you, and the whole statement is videotaped, a suspect’s answers can still be used against him if they (through no fault of their own) have any evidence that any of the suspect’s statements are false (even if they are really true).

8. The police do not have authority to make deals or grant a suspect leniency in exchange for getting a statement.

9. Even if a suspect is guilty, and wants to confess, there may be mitigating factors which justify a lesser charge.

10. Even for a completely honest and innocent person, it is difficult to tell the same story twice in exactly the same way.