Transcription
Here's a very good example of how you might get yourself into trouble with the police. And it's coming from a real story from many years ago. I didn't get myself in trouble with the police, but when I was younger, I did drive a nice sports car—well, a couple of them actually. And so this, for some reason, made the police pull me over from time to time.
One of the things they used to say to me was, "Do you know why I've pulled you over?" To which I would always say, "Why didn't you tell me why you pulled me over? Because I wasn't doing anything wrong." Because I wasn't doing anything wrong. Now, I'm not encouraging anybody to be argumentative with the police here, but when they ask you why you think they've pulled you over, if you give them any information at all, then that could lead to further suspicions because it's coming from you. If you say, "Well, it might be because I, you know, pulled that turn a little too quickly," "It might be because I just nipped the lights a little bit," "It might be because I was just over the speed limit a little bit," "It might be because I passed that cyclist a little too closely"—insert whatever other reason you think you might have been at that point—but if you say any of that, of course, the officer can then use that against you.
If the officer says to you, "What speed do you think you were going at?" and you say, "Well, I don't know," then the officer then will have reason to believe that you're not fully aware of your driving and how fast you're driving and how you're driving. And the officer might choose to use that to back up any suspicions the officer already had, if they had any, about how you were driving. So what is the best thing to to say to the police in this situation? Well, technically nothing, really. There is no best thing to say. You're not obliged to say anything unless you're being formally questioned about a suspected offense that they suspect you've been involved in, and they caution you and all the rest of it.
Now, there is a caveat to all of that, and that is that if ultimately you end up being charged with something, it would have been better had you actually done that thing that you volunteered the information as early as possible, because that might lead to a reduced fine or penalty or whatever it might be, depending on whether you've actually committed that or not. But there's the trap. The officer might pull you over and say, "Do you know why I've pulled you over?" Oldest trick in the book—doesn't happen too much anymore. But what does happen is officers do pull vehicles over because they can just pull a vehicle over for the purposes of running checks—stop checks, they often call that—and they can ask for your driving license and your insurance and things like that. If you don't provide them on the spot, it's technically an offense, but it is a defense to that offense if you provide them within 7 days, which was commonly referred to as a "producer" these days. However, they will very often check them on the spot, and particularly if you consent to them checking it on the spot, which, let's be honest, there's no real reason why you shouldn't, because if you have those and they do want to check and they want to be absolutely sure at that moment in time to rule you out of any line of inquiry for any other kind of offense they might be investigating, then better that they are able to check it and rule you out.
Reminds me of a video I covered not too long ago where some chap was absolutely adamant that this was his private conveyance and it didn't have to be registered with DVLA, and he didn't have to have insurance and didn't have to have a license and all of this sort of stuff, and it wasn't a vehicle, it was his private conveyance. All of that, of course, was nonsense, because all it did was delay everybody for about 45 minutes of taxpayer-funded police, and ultimately he was registered with the DVLA, he did have insurance, he did have all the documentation, and he was sent on his merry way—um, but not before wasting police time. So you know, let's not be in the habit of wasting time where there's no need to waste time.
Speaking of wasting time, that's my point for this video—very short one: keep your mouth shut unless you've taken legal advice. Now, that also comes with a bit of explanation as well, because you may not know whether or not you have committed an offense. Because if the police are questioning you about an offense, then they know what they're asking and why they're asking. If you don't know what they're asking and why they're asking, then you might trip yourself up in what you say, because if you didn't know it was an offense and you say something that then ultimately amounts to a confession of sorts—because a confession is anything said, whether to a person in authority or not, or anything written, or anything like that that is going to have some adverse effect upon the maker of that statement—I've covered that in other videos. So, in other words, don't be arguing with the police, but don't volunteer anything that might get yourself into trouble.
I hope that's useful. Please do like and subscribe, because most of you don't—60% of you don't. That's the only thing I do ask of you is to subscribe to my channel, and then I'll bring you more content. Thanks for watching. Have a great weekend.