0:00 if the police have asked to speak to you that can obviously be a very great worry whether there is any cause for concern or not it might be that some incident has occurred which you know has been reported to the police and they have just contacted you it might come completely out of the blue and you may effectively know nothing about it whatever or you may have been arrested and cautioned and then the police have arranged for an interview however it happens one of the first significant steps in a police investigation is the interviewing process and it is it tremendously extremely important it can almost be viewed as a make-or-break part of the case much more than you might imagine
0:47 according to the police and this is what they will tell you the interview is simply where there's been some problem and they need to ask you some questions to determine what action they need to take that they will ask you questions to establish what happened and then they will make a decision and that would be either to charge you or release you without charge that is what they will tell you at the beginning of the interviewing process the reality is very different indeed the interviewing process is not a common-sense thing normal common sense and ordinary
1:33 conversational rules do not apply and if you are not trained in it then the overwhelming probability is that it will not be a successful interview as far as you are concerned and if handled correctly it can be what that means is that in reality the police are interviewing you to get you to say things which they will then set out in a transcript and use to get you convicted of the offense they know the exact requirements of the law the particular offense they know all about that and they need the know exactly what boxes they have to tick
2:20 what things they need you to say or they need to get you to say for example were you actually there at the scene did you say or do what the witnesses have said what was going through your mind at the time this is often extremely important later on for example with self defense if you tell the police an interview right at the beginning that it was a fight and that you were very angry then it would be very difficult if not impossible to raise self defense later on exactly the same point applies to almost any defense that might be raised it is also very difficult to understand
3:05 and accept just how out of your depth that you will be we can help with that the point that I've just made about defenses is a good example many offenses have statutory defenses and unless you've read the actual law the statute that provides for the charge you will not know what it is the police officer most certainly will in practice in the interview what that means is that anything you say which is contrary to the statutory defense makes it less likely that you will be able to use it and therefore win the more that the police can get you to say which is inconsistent with the statutory defense
3:53 again the less likely you will be able to use the defense they will know exactly what they are doing and you will not simply because you have not been trained as a police detective and you've not read the various laws that are concerned with the matter that's being investigated it is even worse than that because it's very likely that you've never been part of a police investigation before never been in a police interview before was the police officers are thoroughly familiar with it they're doing it many times a day they've been police officers for perhaps 10 20 years and they have been specifically and exactly trained to deal
4:40 with interviews and ask you questions we need to train you to be able to deal with that that aspect of the police officers training is somewhat confidential but as you could imagine there are many very effective techniques the police officers can utilize to get you to say something which when real it later in a transcript you cannot understand why on earth you said it the answer of course that your mistake will be at the end of a long series of questions a long interview and that the police knew exactly what they were after you did not know what they were after and therefore you said something that could be misinterpreted also many people
5:29 Burton indeed police officers will suggest it that the interview is just an opportunity to put the record straight to get to the truth of the situation and that you have nothing whatever to worry about if you are sure that you've done nothing wrong and therefore that you can speak freely and you don't need a solicitor I'm sorry to say that that is very far from the truth indeed if that were not complicated enough they will also caution you and that means that you do not need to say anything unless you want to an interview but if you do not answer the questions then the fact that you didn't answer those questions can be
6:14 used in court against you whether or not you answer the police officers questions is an extremely important and complicated matter and I suspect that most people would not be able to properly consider that and reach the right decision without advice and support from someone sitting right next to the I can help with that sometimes it's right to answer the questions that the police officers put and sometimes it is not we will meet we will go through it we will decide no lawyer if he was facing a personal investigation against him would ever be well advised to sit down and
7:01 answer questions from a professional detective in the police interview without having a solicitor sitting right next to them to advise them as to their answers it is simply that complicated that technical and that important if a lawyer couldn't do it facing an investigation how could you the other thing to think about is there's nothing quite like hearing a couple of four-inch steel doors slamming hard behind you in the police custody block where you will be interviewed it is dreadfully intimidating and whilst lawyers and police officers are completely used to cells you will not be in addition you know that the police are going to be asking you questions which if they
7:48 decide that could result in you being charged with a serious criminal offense also that if after the interview a successful one they're satisfied that there is no need to take any action that the matter will be completely at an end and you will be walking away from the police station you will therefore be in a very stressed condition indeed and most certainly not in the best state to answer perhaps some of the most significant questions in your life it is just a taste of the complexity of what is involved in a police interview my best advice to you is that you do not go
8:34 anywhere near a professional police detective asking you questions without a specialist criminal solicitor sitting right next to you and a solicitor that has been doing exactly that work for in excess of twenty years obviously there was a huge span of criminal offenses that I have not been able to deal with and I've gone through it in a very general way in this the very best thing to do is to call a specialist criminal solicitor and tell them about it there is light at the end of the tunnel if I can help please call me Martin crane my telephone number is Oh 1 2 7 3 6 7 3 2 2 6
9:22 I do hope that what I've said has helped you
