The police want to talk to me about a crime that they are investigating. Should I speak to them?

I think that you have to follow your gut instinct on that. Certainly if you know that your neighbors house was burglarized and the police come over and they are asking you questions and saying, did you see anybody or did you see a suspicious vehicle over there then intuitively you would answer those questions because you certainly want to help in the investigation.

If you’re the target of the investigation then what happens to most people, and this happens to people who are charged with crimes, this happens to people who are charged with serious crimes; I’ve found that people want to help the police even when they’re the subject of the investigation. We are all taught to be polite and it’s impolite to not answer a question if someone is asking you a question.

This is something that the police use, they use it to their advantage in an investigation. Typically when the police are questioning you and you think that you’re the target of the investigation what is really going on is that they believe you committed a crime. They’re not really investigating it so much as they’re gathering evidence and by you giving a statement to them they’re getting that statement from you specifically so it can be used in court against you.