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> "Sir, do you know how fast you were going?" The only responses you should use in such situations are: 'No comment' 'Am I free to go?' Plus the statutory m

> "Sir, do you know how fast you were going?" The only responses you should use in such situations are: 'No comment' 'Am I free to go?' Plus the statutory minimum ( name, address, DoB according to your local legislation ). Psychologically it is very, very difficult. One way to try to handle it is to pretend you're responding to Emacs Eliza, which will always try to turn your words back onto you.

smcl 12y ago
Have you used either of those responses before? Judging from my limited exposure with the police this sort of "technically I don't have to do this\answer this" response is an invite for a cranky cop to do everything they can to inconvenience you as a punishment. For example in my case if I'd carried on doing what I was doing (talking to my friend at conversational level and smiling, while a passing police officer told me "you can wipe that smirk off your face or I'll do it for you" followed by vague suggestions that I should be taken to the police station) I should be able to rest easy knowing I've done nothing wrong and there's not a single crime I could've been found guilty of at that moment. However, they probably could've made my life extremely unpleasant - taking me in for some sort of "questioning", spending a night in the cells - who knows. So this is a long-winded way to ask - is that totally ironclad\foolproof, or is there a non-zero chance that this response will make the situation worse despite being totally legal?
- tempestn 12y ago
  One thing they can easily do, which once happened to me after being nothing but polite: take your driver's license, walk back to their car, and play on their phone for half an hour. I imagine the chances of that would go up with a non-cooperative response. I'm certainly not saying you should spill your guts, but at least being as polite as possible without saying anything incriminating seems sensible.
- lmm 12y ago
  It's about the worst case. Can that make the situation worse? Absolutely. A cop can, at least where I live, throw you in a cell for 48 hours for any reason (other than being a member of a protected class) or none, just on their say-so. If they do it every day their superiors are going to start asking questions, but for a one-off "trust me on this one guys" a cop definitely has that legal authority, and if you piss them off enough it could be the difference between walking away and spending those two nights in jail. (More realistically, it'll make the difference between walking away and going down to the station to be fingerprinted and the like and released after a few hours). But if you incriminate yourself, or commit a crime by e.g. making a false statement as in the article, then you could be looking at a lot more than two nights.
- philbarr 12y ago
  Exactly - I know someone who tried to go the smart-arse route, and the police ended up spending 45 minutes looking into every possible detail of the car, right down to "the lights have the wrong pattern on them". Ended up costing them far more than just accepting a speeding ticket.

smcl 12y ago

Have you used either of those responses before? Judging from my limited exposure with the police this sort of "technically I don't have to do this\answer this" response is an invite for a cranky cop to do everything they can to inconvenience you as a punishment. For example in my case if I'd carried on doing what I was doing (talking to my friend at conversational level and smiling, while a passing police officer told me "you can wipe that smirk off your face or I'll do it for you" followed by vague suggestions that I should be taken to the police station) I should be able to rest easy knowing I've done nothing wrong and there's not a single crime I could've been found guilty of at that moment. However, they probably could've made my life extremely unpleasant - taking me in for some sort of "questioning", spending a night in the cells - who knows. So this is a long-winded way to ask - is that totally ironclad\foolproof, or is there a non-zero chance that this response will make the situation worse despite being totally legal?

tempestn 12y ago
One thing they can easily do, which once happened to me after being nothing but polite: take your driver's license, walk back to their car, and play on their phone for half an hour. I imagine the chances of that would go up with a non-cooperative response. I'm certainly not saying you should spill your guts, but at least being as polite as possible without saying anything incriminating seems sensible.
lmm 12y ago
It's about the worst case. Can that make the situation worse? Absolutely. A cop can, at least where I live, throw you in a cell for 48 hours for any reason (other than being a member of a protected class) or none, just on their say-so. If they do it every day their superiors are going to start asking questions, but for a one-off "trust me on this one guys" a cop definitely has that legal authority, and if you piss them off enough it could be the difference between walking away and spending those two nights in jail. (More realistically, it'll make the difference between walking away and going down to the station to be fingerprinted and the like and released after a few hours). But if you incriminate yourself, or commit a crime by e.g. making a false statement as in the article, then you could be looking at a lot more than two nights.
philbarr 12y ago
Exactly - I know someone who tried to go the smart-arse route, and the police ended up spending 45 minutes looking into every possible detail of the car, right down to "the lights have the wrong pattern on them". Ended up costing them far more than just accepting a speeding ticket.