What Not To Do When You Get Arrested

When you get arrested odds are you won’t be thinking straight. The fear and adrenalin will have you so worked up that you don’t know what to do. While this is completely understandable, there are few things you should try to keep in mind to avoid digging yourself into a deeper hole. People make mistakes while getting arrested all the time, and here are the top five mistakes to avoid when getting arrested.

1. Not shutting up– Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt- Proverbs 17:28. Even if you’re not religious, this is great advice when you get arrested. Just because an officer asks you a question doesn’t mean you have to answer. Especially if you know you’re guilty, talking will only hurt you. Wait for your lawyer to be by your side before you shoot your mouth off.
2. Posting to social media- Facebook is great for a lot of things, defending your case isn’t one of them. If you get arrested for robbery and Facebook profile picture is you wearing a ski mask, pointing a gun at the camera, and smoking a blunt, it just adds fuel to the fire. Do yourself a favor and delete any pictures or posts that might make you look guilty.
3. Running- It doesn’t matter if you were a big track star in high school, the police have dogs, cars, helicopters and all kinds of fun tools to catch you. It’s hard to say, “you were just minding your own business, not doing anything wrong.” if you run. Your odds of winning your case in court are way better than trying to outrun a helicopter.

4. Throwing things-  If you have something you’re not supposed to have, make the police work to find it. Don’t just throw it on the ground where they don’t need any permission to get it. There’s tons of rules police have to follow when they search someone, so the odds of them messing up and violating your rights isn’t bad. If this happens, whatever they found on you will not be admissible in court.

5. Waiting to hire a lawyer- You should call a lawyer as soon as humanly possible. You don’t need to wait for formal charges to be filed. The sooner a lawyer can start working on your case the better and it’s to your advantage to have a lawyer sitting next to you in the interrogation room.