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Social Contact” And The Seattle Police: What To Do
Every day people are arrested by the cops for minor drug charges, minor offenses, and because they have outstanding warrants. Most of these people aren’t bad people, they just make bad decisions. And many of these people (trust me on this, I’m a Seattle DUI attorney) could have avoided the problem if they would have only known the proper way to interact with the cops. If you’re here and interested, today is your lucky day, because I’m going to tell you how to deal with the cops.
To help you understand what to do I’m going to give you a typical example of how people get in trouble. It usually starts with someone that is walking around minding their own business. Nothing about them demonstrates criminal activity is going on. But, there is a cop around, and he decides to wander up and start a conversation with you. He asks where you’re going, what you’re doing, and for your I.D.
You comply with the cop and enter into a conversation. You’re nervous, after all, because you have a small amount of marijuana on you that you use recreationally. You don’t want the cop to know, so you go along with his questions. You give him your ID, even though you know you have a warrant for failing to appear for an illegal fishing charge. Cop see warrant, arrests you, finds drugs, and busts you.
In this case the courts have ruled that the cop has not seized you. This is referred to as a “social contact” because in the court’s eyes the encounter is completely voluntary and the cop has not acted in any way to make you think you couldn’t just end the conversation and walk away (except for the fact that he’s a cop!). Seattle criminal attorneys don’t like this rule because it’s one that doesn’t work out in the real world.
To get yourself out of this situation what are you supposed to do? Can you just walk away from the cop without talking to him? Won’t he track you down and arrest you? If you don’t talk to him, will he automatically assume you are guilty? The short answer is yes, you should just walk away. You could also tell the cop you don’t want to talk.
If you follow these rules and hold strong when the cops get angry, you should be able to walk away without any problems. If the office does arrest you, which happens from time to time, a good Seattle criminal attorney should be able to get the evidence suppressed.
Walking away from a cop is not easy. It takes some real grit to do it, particularly because it is highly probable that you will end up being arrested by the cop. The good thing about it, though is that if you don’t walk away, you’re probably going to get arrested anyway, so why not take a chance? When the cops come up, just keep on walking.
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