Still, there is no reason to take needless risks. Most may be helpful and polite, but the balance of power is not in your favor. There are way too many laws to make sure you are always on the right side. There may also be honest but false recollections both for you or the police.
Would people refusing to talk to the police actually make catching criminals harder? Perhaps. But that just means the legal system needs important simplifications. Also, the balance of power needs to shift in favor of the citizen.
Isn't it also a risk to bring out the big gun (lawyer) immediately? The way I see it, the police can always screw you if they want to. Even if they have nothing against you they can choose to harass you, like check your drivers license every five minutes, anal probing for drugs, whatever.
So it seems like a good idea to play nice and make them be on your side.
I have forgotten the contents of the video in question, though, and I live in Europe. Might watch the video again.
>So it seems like a good idea to play nice and make them be on your side.
In Europe maybe, but not in the US. You are not a cop so they will never be "on your side". They have cases they are pressured to close, so anyone coming in volunteering information is also showing that they know.
If you make a profile of a perpetrator of a given crime what traits will he have? First of all he/she will know all the details of what happened (since they did it). Someone who wasn't there and wasn't involved wont. So if you witness a crime and describe it to the police you've just proven that you fit that part of the profile. That would automatically make you the number one lead if they have nothing better.
And who knows? When I was a kid I did something I shouldn't have. When I saw a teacher was about to discover it I quickly "informed him" of what some bad child had done. I thought this would divert suspicion away from myself. That person going to the police and being "helpful" may actually be trying to divert attention from themselves, try to figure out how much the cops have figured out, etc. The cops can't know so the only logical thing to do is peruse the different leads according to which one is closest to the likely suspect.
And I'm not even describing the cops doing anything bad like framing people (which isn't unheard of).
Have you ever been in a fight? For example back then in the school ground, I wouldn't kick my enemy into the groin. Because that would escalate the rules of the fight into a fight where kicking into the groin is OK. This would have raised the risk of getting kicked in the groin myself.
I can't explain it better than that. I might be wrong, too, when it comes to dealing with the police.
Would people refusing to talk to the police actually make catching criminals harder? Perhaps. But that just means the legal system needs important simplifications. Also, the balance of power needs to shift in favor of the citizen.