Should My Teen Talk to Police If They Did Nothing Wrong?
TL;DR
Founding attorney Richard S. Sterger's answer is no: a teenager should not talk to police without a lawyer, even when they believe they did nothing wrong, because they don't know what information police already have. A statement like 'I was there, but I didn't do anything' can give police an admission that places your child at the scene. In group incidents in Escondido, Sterger has seen 17 kids arrested at once.
- Richard S. Sterger advises that a teenager should never talk to police without counsel, even when police describe the conversation as not custodial.
- Telling police 'It's fine to talk to my kid, but we're going to have counsel present' often means they never follow up. In Sterger's experience in Escondido, offering to talk only with him present ends the conversation.
- The police's job is not to sort out a family's problem. It is to investigate, gather evidence, and refer potential crimes to the DA.
- A teen may not know what is illegal. In a sexting case, the mere possession of a picture that was sent to them can be a crime.
- Saying 'I was there, but I didn't do anything' gives police an admission that the teen was at the scene, which can connect them to a witness who wrongly believes they participated.
- In group incidents, police may use a gang enhancement to arrest many kids at once. Sterger has seen 17 kids arrested at the same time and often gets calls from 5 parents about one incident.
What should I do if police want to question my teenager?
Richard S. Sterger: The short answer is that you should never have your kid talking to the police, and certainly not talking to them without counsel. Juveniles are not allowed to waive Miranda, so they have an opportunity to speak to a lawyer before.
What normally happens is the police are not going to be engaged in custodial interrogation of a juvenile. But where people get caught up is, 'Hey. We're just trying to figure out what's going on. We'd like to talk to your kid, and this isn't custodial.' They position it specifically to not be a custodial situation. And everybody wants to be helpful.
It seems counterintuitive that we would not talk to the police, but if your kid's being investigated or your kid's surrounded by something, it doesn't hurt anything to say, 'Yeah. It's fine to talk to my kid, but we're going to have counsel present.' If you use that kind of discipline around it, what you're going to find out is that they oftentimes are never going to even follow up with you.
Up here in Escondido, if the police are saying they want to talk to you and you retain our services and we respond by saying, 'Hey. Look. We're happy to talk to you as long as I'm present,' it ends the conversation because they know how short the conversation is really going to be.
Their job is not to sort it out. Their job is to figure out: is there potentially a crime that we can refer over to the DA?
Police are not there to work out your problems for you. They're there to investigate, gather evidence, and refer it over to the DA.
Should a minor talk to police if they did nothing wrong?
Richard S. Sterger: The difficult part about this is: how do you know that you've done nothing wrong? You don't know what information they have. They're not going to share it with you. They're not talking to you because they don't think something. And you have no idea of the details of what could get you in trouble.
We recently had a conversation where we were talking about sexting. I think that's a good example, where a kid could think, 'I didn't do anything wrong. She sent me a picture of her. I didn't do anything.' The mere possession of that picture is wrong. So your child can think, 'I did nothing. There's nothing they can get me for.'
And lo and behold, there actually is something that they could get you for. Let's be real about this. The police don't call people out of the blue just to check in on them. So something's going on. You may think you know all the facts on it. You may think you have nothing to do with it. That may be different than you think.
There have been situations where there's a fight. Some kid says, 'I was there, but I didn't do anything.' But they have a witness that says you did. That statement that 'I was there and didn't do anything' all of a sudden gives them one element that they may not have really had before. They have an admission from you that you were actually there.
Can a teen who only witnessed a crime be charged?
Richard S. Sterger: So now that other person who mistakenly believes you participated has tied you into this. I've seen this multiple times in Escondido, especially in juvenile cases. There was a crime committed, no doubt, but there's not one person who gets arrested because they're the one that knifed somebody or shot somebody. But 17 kids are arrested all at the same time.
That works because the police will use a gang type enhancement and say all of these kids were associated or affiliated and that this was in the advancement of the gang. And now all of them are wrapped into something where they think, 'I didn't do anything. I was there. I saw something happen. I was a witness to something.' But no. You actually could be charged in this crime. And this isn't something that's rare.
The reason I know that it happens all the time is because my office will get called by five parents around the same incident. We'll talk to the first parent, but then there'll be four calls where we say, 'Sorry. We can't talk to you because we're conflicted.' We only talk to the first person. We'll find out initially there's 15 kids, and I know the phone's going to ring, and I'm going to get two, three, four other parents that are going to call me [whose kids] were rounded up.
And these kids truly believe that they didn't do anything. If they're sitting there saying, 'Yeah. I was there. I witnessed the whole thing that happened,' now they're admitting to something that places them at the scene, and that's not to their benefit. It's filling in elements for the prosecution that was unnecessary to do. You didn't have any obligation to help them in their investigation.
I'm not out here trying to say there's not times that you want to be there telling the police what's going on. But when they're calling you, mom and dad, and they're saying, 'We want to talk to your kid,' they're not doing that because they're looking for his assistance with something. They're looking to figure out how he was involved or she was involved.
Frequently Asked Questions
If police say it's just a conversation and not an arrest, can my teen talk to them?
Richard S. Sterger notes that police often position these talks specifically so they are not custodial, which is where families get caught up. His advice is to tell police it's fine to talk to your child, but only with counsel present.
What happens if we tell police our child will only talk with a lawyer present?
According to Sterger, police oftentimes never follow up. In his experience in Escondido, responding that the family is happy to talk as long as he is present ends the conversation, because police know how short that conversation will be.
Can my teen get in trouble for something they didn't know was illegal?
Yes. Sterger points to sexting: a teen may believe they did nothing wrong because someone else sent them a picture, but the mere possession of that picture is wrong.
Why is it risky for my teen to tell police they were there but didn't do anything?
That statement gives police an admission that your child was at the scene, an element they may not have had before. If a witness mistakenly believes your child participated, the admission ties your child into the case.
Can a teen be charged just for being present during a group incident?
Sterger has seen cases in Escondido where police use a gang type enhancement and arrest many kids at once, including 17 at the same time. Kids who believe they were only witnesses can still be charged.
Edited for length and clarity from a recorded conversation with Richard S. Sterger. Watch the full interview on YouTube.
