Professor James Duane’s hit lecture “Don’t Talk to the Police”
has received more than 3.6 million views on YouTube, a figure that does not
include views for other versions floating around on the Internet, one of which
has more than 2.2 million hits. Now, the lecture has been acknowledged on
primetime television. In “Conventions,”
a Feb. 26, 2014 episode of the NBC drama Chicago
P.D., a criminal suspect requests to remain silent under protection of the Fifth
Amendment and references the popular lecture.
At approximately 16:50 of the episode, the suspect
says, “Do you get the Internet here? Cause there’s this great video on YouTube
by this law professor, and he’s very articulate. And he makes a very compelling
and convincing argument. It’s called ‘Don’t Talk to the Cops.’”
In the episode, the police don’t respect the suspect’s
rights, but Professor Duane says that not talking to the police or any
government agent until an attorney is present is a serious matter.
“Of course there are often times when people need to call
the police and should do so,” he explains. “For example, when you are a victim
of a crime, or a witness to a crime, or when you have been involved in an
accident and the law requires you to call the police to report that someone has
been injured. But when the police or any government agents come to you without
warning to ask you questions in an interview that you did not schedule, no
smart individual will take the risk of answering their questions. Indeed, that
is exactly what police officers and prosecutors almost invariably advise their
own children!”
“The law does not require the police to tell you the truth
about what they are really investigating, and whether you are a suspect, or
what evidence they already think they have against you, and in fact the police
will routinely lie to you about all those subjects and many more. And even if
you are innocent, almost anything you say to them will only increase the
chances, even if only slightly, that you might give them information that could
be used to help convict you of a crime that you did not commit, or some
supposed criminal offense that nobody in their right mind would ever imagine
might have been a crime.”
Professor Duane is surprised that the lecture, originally
given to prospective law students several years ago, has received so much
attention.
“I never anticipated that so many people would watch the
video. I arranged only to have the video posted on the Regent University
website, and do not even know who put it on YouTube. It’s gratifying that the
lecture has received such an impressive response and that the writers and
producers of Chicago P.D. thought it was good advice.”
As the lecture stays in vogue,
schools and criminal defense organizations reach out to Professor Duane, asking
him to speak at events. So far, Professor Duane has accepted more than one
dozen invitations to speak on the Fifth Amendment. He will give additional
lectures on that topic in April at the University of Pennsylvania Law School,
in June at the annual meeting of the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers
Association in Tulsa, and in September at a nationwide conference for public
defenders in New Orleans.