If you have ever watched a show about the police on TV, you will probably have seen them telling someone they are arresting and that they have the right to remain silent. This is one of your rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.
But why might you want to remain silent if you have done nothing wrong? And why might you want to stay silent even before any arrest occurs?
Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law
The next sentence the officers you saw on TV should have said would be, “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.” That is why it is usually best to keep quiet. If you don’t say anything, you do not give them any words to use against you.
Your words could easily be taken out of context
If the police stop you to ask questions, they do so because they are looking for information. Let’s take a seemingly innocent situation: The police stop you and ask,“ Are you on your way back from anywhere nice?”
You reply truthfully that you have been to lunch with a friend at a particular restaurant. The police use that freely given information to mark you as a possible suspect for a robbery that occurred ten minutes away from that restaurant in the last few hours. This leads to further questions and potentially even your arrest.
If you had said nothing (other than fulfilling your obligation to identify yourself) they would not have known you were close to the crime scene and may have let you go on your way without further problems. While they might eventually realize you have nothing to do with the crime, you would still have lost time and experienced a lot of stress just for answering a question you did not have to answer.
If you wish to answer police questions at any point, legal guidance can reduce the chance you say something potentially incriminating.