Police Officer Trickery Attorney in Santa Rosa, California

If you need help, call a friend, a neighbor, a relative or even a stranger, but whatever you do, don’t call the police.

I’ve listened to hundreds of 911 calls from people in need of help or people calling to report unusual behavior. We’re all being encouraged to report DUI drivers. But, do we really know if a driver is under the influence of anything?

Here’s what experience tells me happens in all too many instances. The communication between a dispatcher and a caller often has the dispatcher putting words in the caller’s mouth. Is he driving recklessly, did he almost hit a car, has he been drinking, do you think he is under the influence of something? These are leading questions designed to get the caller to give the police a better reason to stop someone. It’s Trickery!

Once an officer stops someone the first thing he usually says when he approaches the driver is either “do you know why I stopped you” or “how much have you had to drink”.

In either case, the officer is offering you the opportunity to incriminate yourself. All too often a client tells me that they were not given their Miranda rights. And, it’s too bad that Miranda does not apply to these sorts of preliminary questioning by an officer.

Because everything you say and will be used against you, but because you aren’t in custody and this type of questioning isn’t viewed as being interrogation, you don’t get the benefit of “taking your words back” It’s Trickery!

We all have the right to remain silent and anything you say or do can and will be used against you in a court of law and we don’t need cops to tell us that. They also don’t tell us that their field sobriety tests are really voluntary. Why should you start tapping your fingers and counting, saying the alphabet backward, stand on one foot and count, or walk heel to toe up and down the street when you aren’t required to? Just say, “no thank you, officer!” If you take their tests without knowing the rules and without the benefit of a video recording, then you’ve given an experienced trickster his opportunity to convict you. It’s Trickery.