What to Do if the Police Come Knocking on Your Door.

As criminal lawyers, one of the biggest concerns we have is that clients often say to us that they had no idea that they did not have to speak to police when the police came looking for them.

The perception in the community seems to be that if you explain the situation to the police, that it will clear things up and they won’t charge you. Maybe it’s based around the ingrained idea within our community that people should be “good Samaritans”.

Unfortunately, the reality is this – if the police want to interview you, there’s a good chance they have already decided that they are going to charge you anyway. It would only be in the event of you offering some sort of complete defence to the offence in your interview which may deter them from charging you.

Police interview you with the hope that you will admit the allegations that they make against you, making the task of prosecuting you a little bit easier for them.

That’s why as our first blog post, we want to make one thing clear.

Generally, other than providing certain identification to police such as your name and address upon a lawful request being made of you; you do not have to speak to police or participate in an interview with police at all. You have a fundamental right to silence.

Your fundamental right to silence also means that this silence in the face of allegations being levelled against you by police cannot be relied upon as unfavourable evidence against you.

In the Australian Capital Territory, section 89 of the Evidence Act 2011 (ACT) provides this safeguard for you.

In New South Wales, the same safeguard is provided in section 89 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW).

If you do speak to police and you admit an element of an offence, the police will certainly try to rely on this admission in Court.

It’s also not necessary for you to go in to an interview and say “no comment” to police – this will just make it look like you’ve watched too many crime shows on TV.

So, the take away lesson we want to give to you is that if the police come knocking, contact a Canberra criminal lawyer and get urgent legal advice. This legal advice may be the difference between giving you a fighting chance or locking you up and throwing away the key (they don’t actually throw away the key – but you get the idea).