The most common mistake that people make during the arrest process is to talk too much. If an individual is being arrested, that means a law enforcement officer has already decided that they need to go to jail on these charges. The only thing a person should say to the arresting officers, the deputies, the jailers, and other personnel is the bare minimum information about themselves needed to be processed – such as their name, their address, phone number, and that sort of thing. If a person does not give that information, then they will not be eligible to get out on bail, so give the bare minimum information about yourself and how you can be contacted.
The second biggest mistake that people make is to be rude towards law enforcement officers and especially the jailers. The jailers have nothing to do with the decision to arrest an individual, they are merely there to book the individual in and process them through, but they have a lot of default or de facto power.
If an individual takes a bad attitude and the jailer sees them as unruly, the jailer can put them in a holding cell for hours and no one will know. The best thing to do is have a pleasant attitude and not say anything more than you have to. Keep your mouth shut with a smile on your face and you might get through there a little bit faster.
Miranda rights are advisements that law enforcement officers give to a person who is being arrested about the right to have an attorney to represent them, the right to have an attorney appointed if they cannot afford one, and most importantly the right to not speak to the law enforcement officers unless the attorney is present.
While the Miranda rights are given on television for dramatic effect in almost every case, but in reality, most often a person’s Miranda rights are not given at the arrest. In actuality, Miranda rights are an advisement that must be given only if the police wish to question a person after the person has been arrested.
Thus, if the police stop someone and determine they have committed a crime, from DUI to murder, they arrest them and take them to jail. If the police officer is not going to question the person after the arrest, then she does not have to read the Miranda rights to the person arrested. However, if the police question the person about the case after they have been arrested without reading the Miranda rights first, then any statements the person makes after the arrest can be thrown out of evidence.