Having
24 Years of Experience in criminal law I saw variety of reactions by people who
are being arrested wrongly. Some of these reactions are reckless but
understandable. Others are self defeating to the point of being peculiar. No
one plans to be arrested, but it might help to think just once about what you
will do and not do if you ever hear the phrase “Put your hands behind you.” The
simplest “to do” rule is to do what you are told. Simple, but somehow it often
escapes someone who is either scared or intoxicated.
Five
things you SHOULD NOT do:
1. Don’t try to convince the officer of your innocence. It’s useless. He or she
only needs “probable cause” to believe you have committed a crime in order to
arrest you. He does not decide your guilt and he actually doesn’t care if you
are innocent or not. It is the job of the judge or jury to free you if he is
wrong. If you feel that urge to convince him he’s made a mistake, remember the
overwhelming probability that instead you will say at least one thing that will
hurt your case, perhaps even fatally. It is smarter to save your defense for
your lawyer.
2. Don’t run. It’s highly unlikely a suspect could outrun ten radio cars
converging on a block in mere seconds. I saw a case where a passenger being
driven home by a drunken friend bolted and ran. Why? It was the driver they
wanted, and she needlessly risked injury in a forceful arrest. Even worse, the
police might have suspected she ran because she had a gun, perhaps making them
too quick to draw their own firearms. Most police will just arrest a runner,
but there are some who will be mad they had to work so hard and injure the
suspect unnecessarily.
3. Keep quiet. My hardest cases to defend are those where the suspect got very
talkative. Incredibly, many will start babbling without the police having asked
a single question. My most vivid memory of this problem was the armed robbery
suspect who blurted to police: “How could the guy identify me? The robbers were
wearing masks.” To which the police smiled and responded, “Oh? Were they?”
Judges and juries will discount or ignore what a suspect says that helps him,
but give great weight to anything that seems to hurt him. In 24 years of
criminal practice, I could count on one hand the number of times a suspect was
released because of what he told the police after they arrested him.
4. Don’t give permission to search anywhere. If they ask, it probably means they
don’t believe they have the right to search and need your consent. If you are
ordered to hand over your keys, state loudly “You do NOT have my permission to
search.” If bystanders hear you, whatever they find may be excluded from
evidence later. This is also a good reason not to talk, even if it seems all is
lost when they find something incriminating.
5. Don’t resist arrest. Above all, do not push the police or try to swat their
hands away. That would be assaulting an officer and any slight injury to them
will turn your minor misdemeanor arrest into a felony. A petty shoplifter can
wind up going to state prison that way. Resisting arrest (such as pulling away)
is merely a misdemeanor and often the police do not even charge that offense.
Obviously, striking an officer can result in serious injury to you as well.
