3 ms·

Are police in the US obligated to tell you why you are being arrested?

• than3 4y ago
  I'm not sure about that, but they certainly aren't required to provide information needed to validate a warrant is legitimate. California recently had a gang round-up where warrants that were provided as the basis for searches for properties in question had almost all information needed to verify the validity of the warrant redacted (even the address for the property in question being presented at, at least according to local news). No one had any idea what was going on or whether the warrants were even legitimate, seemed like a play out of East Germany's playbook before the wall came down, just short of the gestapo.
  • sidewndr46 4y ago
    Do you have a source for any reporting about this?
• jfengel 4y ago
  No, not constitutionally. But some states, including New York, do have laws that say that they must. Also, if there is a warrant, they generally have to show it to you.
• joe_the_user 4y ago
  US Police aren't required to say anything when a person is arrested. They can just grab you and hustle you into a car without a word. When a person is charged with a crime, the police expected to supply evidence but they can come up with excuses not to. Once the case goes to trial, all the evidence is supposed to be available to defense attorneys. But since plea bargaining is common, police may not have to come up with the evidence ever. Overall, US legal procedure is full of things that are absolute rules for civilians but just sloppy average suggestions for cops.
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]