Talking to the Police

The reader(s) of this blog tend to tread the same grounds, but I thought I'd point out that I finally watched

Talking with the Police

It's pretty amusing and paints an idyllic portrait of law school. Prof. James Duane cites eight good reasons why talking to the police has no upside and plenty of downside.

8.) No matter how careful you are, even if you're completely innocent and do not implicate yourself in any way, the mere act of making a statement opens yourself up to problems if someone else bears false witness against you (perhaps by mistake and police later convince them their vague feeling is in fact a solid recollection). That's bad.

That said, in November 2006 I was more or less suspected of fraud. Someone (not me) used my name and whatever information that is available about me in the Real White Pages to make an online purchase with a stolen credit card. I agreed to help the police and by the end of the interview was permitted to use the investigating officer's computer for research to save everyone time.

I haven't heard about it since, but I wonder what direction he would have taken the investigation had I refused to say anything... as I understand it, search warrants aren't all that challenging to get if you ask the right court. That alone would have been a major pain in the ass to have my computer seized shortly before Deadweek.

Did performing the opposite of Prof. Duane's advice save me some trouble? His lecture suggests that the only reason things went as well for me as they did is because the officer didn't think I was responsible to begin with. "Have you ever had your mind changed by talking to a suspect, Officer Invited Guest? No?"

Comments or analysis?