A Police Invitation for a Voluntary Interview

A Police Invitation for a Voluntary Interview

Author
Discussion

r3g

3,189 posts

25 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
Glassman said:
Was initially contacted by local police by phone. It showed as a withheld number and given that my phone is one of three numbers listed for my business (suspecting it might be another spam caller) I ignored it in that hope that if it was a genuine - and important - call, the caller will leave a voicemail. They didn't. A second attempt was made and I got suspicious and reacted in the same way.

Several days later, I received an email (at work). It was from the police, sent to the generic info@ address. 'You are required to attend a voluntary interview...', blah-blah-blah. I had to think hard what that might mean and when I realised that it pointed towards something criminal I'm about to be accused of. Again, I thought long and hard about what it could be because there was nothing I could think of that might come close.

I wrote back asking what it was about but was told that this information could not be disclosed however, it was for an allegation of harassment. There is nothing that has happened in my life that could fit the bill. The only think that could come close to this is when I had a disagreement with the parent football club of a team I was managing. They withheld the league winner trophies from my team and despite my various attempts to call (or message) the officers of the club, they ignored me and even went as far as blocking me on FB, Insta and Twitter. I tried talking to people at the club who could ask on my behalf (for the trophies for the players who would have been 13/14 at the time). They refused to comment leaving me well and truly ghosted and the players without trophies. I paid for trophies out of my own pocket and arranged our own presentation day.

In the lead up to this, I was pissed off about the whole matter and saw that I wasn't blocked on LinkedIn so asked the question there. The comment/question got deleted, so I asked again (words to the effect of: 'can you give us our trophies' and 'this is disgraceful behaviour by adults running a kids football club' etc). It became a cat and mouse affair as over a period of time a comment would go up and they would delete. In the end, all comments were disabled. Some time later, the trophies were left outside my assistant coach's house. It was too little too late, but signaled the end of a stty episode.

Harassment? Of a footy club?

This is the only possibility of what the allegation might be.
This is what it'll be for, 99%. The person who you've had this ongoing argument with has finally given you what you wanted, but being their spiteful POS that they are, has found on where you work and grassed you up to the plod for "harrassment".

Absolutely nothing good will come from attending the plod station to "help us with our enquiries". The police are wanting a conviction and they'll use every trick in the book in their questioning to get you to trip yourself up and admit that, "yes, my constant pestering of x for my trophies could loosely be construed as harrassment I suppose". At which point the police will have your statement on tape and you'll be swiftly charged with harrassment which will stay on your file for the rest of your life and you'll now be a criminal. Case closed for the police and another nice easy statistic to add to their bow to show the government what a great job they are doing in solving crimes and getting criminals convicted.

What you actually need to do is ignore all contact from the police numbers, ignore their emails and visits requesting that you come and "help us with our enquiries" and carry on with your life. If they had enough evidence to arrest you they already would have done so. They haven't and so need you to come and incriminate yourself. Ignore and move on with your life.

aproctor1

81 posts

169 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
r3g said:
This is what it'll be for, 99%. The person who you've had this ongoing argument with has finally given you what you wanted, but being their spiteful POS that they are, has found on where you work and grassed you up to the plod for "harrassment".

Absolutely nothing good will come from attending the plod station to "help us with our enquiries". The police are wanting a conviction and they'll use every trick in the book in their questioning to get you to trip yourself up and admit that, "yes, my constant pestering of x for my trophies could loosely be construed as harrassment I suppose". At which point the police will have your statement on tape and you'll be swiftly charged with harrassment which will stay on your file for the rest of your life and you'll now be a criminal. Case closed for the police and another nice easy statistic to add to their bow to show the government what a great job they are doing in solving crimes and getting criminals convicted.

What you actually need to do is ignore all contact from the police numbers, ignore their emails and visits requesting that you come and "help us with our enquiries" and carry on with your life. If they had enough evidence to arrest you they already would have done so. They haven't and so need you to come and incriminate yourself. Ignore and move on with your life.
I think this is the most sensible advice (IANAL).

If they come knocking on your door, by all means engage, with the help of a solicitor. It may be worth identifying one that you want to call, should this progress further.

Greendubber

13,222 posts

204 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
aproctor1 said:
r3g said:
This is what it'll be for, 99%. The person who you've had this ongoing argument with has finally given you what you wanted, but being their spiteful POS that they are, has found on where you work and grassed you up to the plod for "harrassment".

Absolutely nothing good will come from attending the plod station to "help us with our enquiries". The police are wanting a conviction and they'll use every trick in the book in their questioning to get you to trip yourself up and admit that, "yes, my constant pestering of x for my trophies could loosely be construed as harrassment I suppose". At which point the police will have your statement on tape and you'll be swiftly charged with harrassment which will stay on your file for the rest of your life and you'll now be a criminal. Case closed for the police and another nice easy statistic to add to their bow to show the government what a great job they are doing in solving crimes and getting criminals convicted.

What you actually need to do is ignore all contact from the police numbers, ignore their emails and visits requesting that you come and "help us with our enquiries" and carry on with your life. If they had enough evidence to arrest you they already would have done so. They haven't and so need you to come and incriminate yourself. Ignore and move on with your life.
I think this is the most sensible advice (IANAL).

If they come knocking on your door, by all means engage, with the help of a solicitor. It may be worth identifying one that you want to call, should this progress further.
It's actually terrible advice.

Why not attend with a solicitor at a time that suits you rather than risk getting locked up at a really inconvenient or embarrassing time? The arrest will result in an interview, which you cab do without all the inconvenience of actually getting arrested, at a time that suits you.

ETA: It won't go away if you ignore it, just because they aren't trying to arrest someone and are looking to deal with it by way of a voluntary interview does NOT mean you can't be arrested if you frustrated the process.




Edited by Greendubber on Thursday 25th January 17:59

Glassman

Original Poster:

22,543 posts

216 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
In between posting. I've agreed on a time and appointed a solicitor.

Harrumph.

Nibbles_bits

1,074 posts

40 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
DO NOT LISTEN TO R3G's ADVICE

R3g is wrong about 90% of this.

If you're being asked to attend a Voluntary Interview, R3g is right, you're not "helping with inquiries" you are a Suspect.

By all means go no comment. Just be mindful that you don't need to have admitted guilt to be charged with an offence.

If you do want a solicitor, then listen to their advice.

DON'T IGNORE THIS. It won't go away.

An arrest isn't just about the evidence, but it is all about the NECESSITY.
If the Officer can't get you to agree to a time/date/place for a Voluntary Interview, YOU are providing the necessity to arrest you and conduct the interview in Custody.

I'm not aware of any lwa/guidance that states how many times the VI can be rearranged before the Officer decides arrest is necessity.
But the time limit for the interview taking place (VI/Custody) will depend on the offence.



The Gauge

1,920 posts

14 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
r3g said:
This is what it'll be for, 99%. The person who you've had this ongoing argument with has finally given you what you wanted, but being their spiteful POS that they are, has found on where you work and grassed you up to the plod for "harrassment".

Absolutely nothing good will come from attending the plod station to "help us with our enquiries". The police are wanting a conviction and they'll use every trick in the book in their questioning to get you to trip yourself up and admit that, "yes, my constant pestering of x for my trophies could loosely be construed as harrassment I suppose". At which point the police will have your statement on tape and you'll be swiftly charged with harrassment which will stay on your file for the rest of your life and you'll now be a criminal. Case closed for the police and another nice easy statistic to add to their bow to show the government what a great job they are doing in solving crimes and getting criminals convicted.

What you actually need to do is ignore all contact from the police numbers, ignore their emails and visits requesting that you come and "help us with our enquiries" and carry on with your life. If they had enough evidence to arrest you they already would have done so. They haven't and so need you to come and incriminate yourself. Ignore and move on with your life.
This is probably the worse advice anyone could ever follow, especially the ' If they had enough evidence to arrest you they already would have done so" bit. Quite shocking advice actually.

Nibbles_bits

1,074 posts

40 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
Glassman said:
In between posting. I've agreed on a time and appointed a solicitor.

Harrumph.
I'd would have loved to have seen how your ultimatum email would have played out.

Glassman

Original Poster:

22,543 posts

216 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
Nibbles_bits said:
I'd would have loved to have seen how your ultimatum email would have played out.
The officer called within minutes of receiving it and made no attempt to excuse the radio silence. Instead, went straight into switching stations. I pulled the conversation back to that reference point because it's important to address details.

She'll want her pound of flesh now no doubt.

hehe



Greendubber

13,222 posts

204 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
Glassman said:
Nibbles_bits said:
I'd would have loved to have seen how your ultimatum email would have played out.
The officer called within minutes of receiving it and made no attempt to excuse the radio silence. Instead, went straight into switching stations. I pulled the conversation back to that reference point because it's important to address details.

She'll want her pound of flesh now no doubt.

hehe
I don't deal with this kind of thing these days but I reckon I'm fairly sure, based on your (albeit one sided) account the officer will just want to knob this off as quickly as possible and get rid of it.



Nibbles_bits

1,074 posts

40 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
Glassman said:
Nibbles_bits said:
I'd would have loved to have seen how your ultimatum email would have played out.
The officer called within minutes of receiving it and made no attempt to excuse the radio silence. Instead, went straight into switching stations. I pulled the conversation back to that reference point because it's important to address details.

She'll want her pound of flesh now no doubt.

hehe
"You see your Honour, I can't possibly be guilty of the offence, because the Officer didn't get back to me with 14 days"

"Jailer. Release that man immediately".

Nibbles_bits

1,074 posts

40 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
Glassman said:
Nibbles_bits said:
I'd would have loved to have seen how your ultimatum email would have played out.
The officer called within minutes of receiving it and made no attempt to excuse the radio silence. Instead, went straight into switching stations. I pulled the conversation back to that reference point because it's important to address details.

She'll want her pound of flesh now no doubt.

hehe
By you having to go to a station 15 miles away, it sounds like she's already got it

smile

caziques

2,577 posts

169 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
Nibbles_bits said:
An arrest isn't just about the evidence, but it is all about the NECESSITY.
If the Officer can't get you to agree to a time/date/place for a Voluntary Interview, YOU are providing the necessity to arrest you and conduct the interview in Custody.

I'm not aware of any lwa/guidance that states how many times the VI can be rearranged before the Officer decides arrest is necessity.
But the time limit for the interview taking place (VI/Custody) will depend on the offence.
Just so I understand things, "an arrest can become a necessity because the OP won't attend a voluntary interview"?

Looks like retaliation to me.

An arrest for refusing to talk to the police would be interesting.

Of course, after an arrest anyone can remain silent. Although in the US you have to inform the police you are choosing to remain silent.

Greendubber

13,222 posts

204 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
caziques said:
Nibbles_bits said:
An arrest isn't just about the evidence, but it is all about the NECESSITY.
If the Officer can't get you to agree to a time/date/place for a Voluntary Interview, YOU are providing the necessity to arrest you and conduct the interview in Custody.

I'm not aware of any lwa/guidance that states how many times the VI can be rearranged before the Officer decides arrest is necessity.
But the time limit for the interview taking place (VI/Custody) will depend on the offence.
Just so I understand things, "an arrest can become a necessity because the OP won't attend a voluntary interview"?

Looks like retaliation to me.

An arrest for refusing to talk to the police would be interesting.

Of course, after an arrest anyone can remain silent. Although in the US you have to inform the police you are choosing to remain silent.
It's not retaliation at all and quite honestly only a fool would think that.

The arrest becomes necessary as the investigation needs to progress. If someone is refusing to come for a voluntary interview what do you suggest the police do, not bother and just forget about it?

Also, you would not be arrested for 'refusing to talk to police' but the original offence that they are investigating.

Nibbles_bits

1,074 posts

40 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
caziques said:
Nibbles_bits said:
An arrest isn't just about the evidence, but it is all about the NECESSITY.
If the Officer can't get you to agree to a time/date/place for a Voluntary Interview, YOU are providing the necessity to arrest you and conduct the interview in Custody.

I'm not aware of any lwa/guidance that states how many times the VI can be rearranged before the Officer decides arrest is necessity.
But the time limit for the interview taking place (VI/Custody) will depend on the offence.
Just so I understand things, "an arrest can become a necessity because the OP won't attend a voluntary interview"?

Looks like retaliation to me.

An arrest for refusing to talk to the police would be interesting.

Of course, after an arrest anyone can remain silent. Although in the US you have to inform the police you are choosing to remain silent.
The necessity would be to interview you about the offence you are suspected of.

You can refuse to talk. Your told that at the beginning of the interview.

What you can't do, is refuse to be interviewed. So you can refuse to attend a Voluntary Interview, but because you still need to be interviewed, you'd be arrested and interviewed in Custody.
Whilst in Custody you CAN refuse to be interviewed, but PACE makes an allowance for that (S12.5).


whimsical ninja

147 posts

28 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
Greendubber said:
I don't deal with this kind of thing these days but I reckon I'm fairly sure, based on your (albeit one sided) account the officer will just want to knob this off as quickly as possible and get rid of it.
I'm reminded of those old online things 15-20 years ago where you pressed a button and it told you "you are 37% gay" or some similar nonsense. Reading this quote above, my 2006 internet meme generator says that this poster is 110% job. This is absolutely the most accurate thing posted on this thread

Tom1312

1,021 posts

147 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
The suspicion that somebody would fail to attend on a voluntary basis can become an element of the grounds for arrest.

From code G of PACE:

On many occasions a voluntary interview or an alternative course of action to
arrest will be the most appropriate course of action, particularly when dealing
with minor offences where the actions of the suspect if at liberty cannot
influence the outcome of other enquiries.
Officers considering the necessity to arrest to conduct a prompt and effective
investigation from an interview perspective should consider the following which
is not an exhaustive list:
? It is thought unlikely that the person would attend the police station
voluntarily to be interviewed;
? It is necessary to interview the suspect about the outcome of other
investigative action for which their arrest is necessary;



Glad you got it sorted OP. Like Bigends said, this interview will probably be to allow the officer to close off the investigation, but it needs to be done to meet the requirements of the case action plan.

Though why you've taken issue with them trying to arrange it during their work time is hardly their fault, when else would you expect them to do it? If anything I think they've been decent in giving you so much time.

Bigends said:
Serving Cops - do you still carry out contemp interviews at home addresses?
I haven't been on response for 6 years now but I'd say 80% of my jobs on response were dealt with via contemp interviews as it made life much easier for the simple low level crimes.

Bazil_Brush

55 posts

221 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
Glassman said:
Was initially contacted by local police by phone. It showed as a withheld number and given that my phone is one of three numbers listed for my business (suspecting it might be another spam caller) I ignored it in that hope that if it was a genuine - and important - call, the caller will leave a voicemail. They didn't. A second attempt was made and I got suspicious and reacted in the same way.

Several days later, I received an email (at work). It was from the police, sent to the generic info@ address. 'You are required to attend a voluntary interview...', blah-blah-blah. I had to think hard what that might mean and when I realised that it pointed towards something criminal I'm about to be accused of. Again, I thought long and hard about what it could be because there was nothing I could think of that might come close.

I wrote back asking what it was about but was told that this information could not be disclosed however, it was for an allegation of harassment. There is nothing that has happened in my life that could fit the bill. The only think that could come close to this is when I had a disagreement with the parent football club of a team I was managing. They withheld the league winner trophies from my team and despite my various attempts to call (or message) the officers of the club, they ignored me and even went as far as blocking me on FB, Insta and Twitter. I tried talking to people at the club who could ask on my behalf (for the trophies for the players who would have been 13/14 at the time). They refused to comment leaving me well and truly ghosted and the players without trophies. I paid for trophies out of my own pocket and arranged our own presentation day.

In the lead up to this, I was pissed off about the whole matter and saw that I wasn't blocked on LinkedIn so asked the question there. The comment/question got deleted, so I asked again (words to the effect of: 'can you give us our trophies' and 'this is disgraceful behaviour by adults running a kids football club' etc). It became a cat and mouse affair as over a period of time a comment would go up and they would delete. In the end, all comments were disabled. Some time later, the trophies were left outside my assistant coach's house. It was too little too late, but signaled the end of a stty episode.

Harassment? Of a footy club?

This is the only possibility of what the allegation might be.
Did you upset an ex.. The bar is very low these days - just contacting someone after they have asked you to stop will get you a warning from the police if they see evidence on an sms for instance. Be very careful if this does indeed apply to you.

r3g

3,189 posts

25 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
Greendubber said:
It's not retaliation at all and quite honestly only a fool would think that.

The arrest becomes necessary as the investigation needs to progress. If someone is refusing to come for a voluntary interview what do you suggest the police do, not bother and just forget about it?

Also, you would not be arrested for 'refusing to talk to police' but the original offence that they are investigating.
It's not voluntary then, is it ? rolleyes Proof (not that it were ever needed) that the police are not the brightest crayons when they are unable to understand the difference. If something is voluntary then the person has the choice in doing it or not doing it, without anything else happening if they decide not to do it. What you are saying is that it is not voluntary at all, it is a compulsory requirement, ie. an order, and if you do not comply then we will come to your house or wherever we believe you are located and arrest you to force you to comply. That is NOT voluntary.

As I keep saying - and will continue to keep saying - the police work on lies, coercion, manipulation, threats and deception to trap people into doing what they want them to do.

blueg33

35,973 posts

225 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
Why are the police dicking about with this when the could be sorting out the sex offence my daughter and her friend we subject to back in May!

It’s a rhetorical question but it strikes me that the priorities are all wrong.

Nibbles_bits

1,074 posts

40 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
r3g said:
Greendubber said:
It's not retaliation at all and quite honestly only a fool would think that.

The arrest becomes necessary as the investigation needs to progress. If someone is refusing to come for a voluntary interview what do you suggest the police do, not bother and just forget about it?

Also, you would not be arrested for 'refusing to talk to police' but the original offence that they are investigating.
It's not voluntary then, is it ? rolleyes Proof (not that it were ever needed) that the police are not the brightest crayons when they are unable to understand the difference. If something is voluntary then the person has the choice in doing it or not doing it, without anything else happening if they decide not to do it. What you are saying is that it is not voluntary at all, it is a compulsory requirement, ie. an order, and if you do not comply then we will come to your house or wherever we believe you are located and arrest you to force you to comply. That is NOT voluntary.

As I keep saying - and will continue to keep saying - the police work on lies, coercion, manipulation, threats and deception to trap people into doing what they want them to do.
You're correct. I don't know where the name of the came from, and that's what I tell my suspects.

The choice is - come in at a time mutually convenient for both of us or be arrested (if the arrest is necessary).

What other way would you have it?
Just arrest everyone??


Edited by Nibbles_bits on Thursday 25th January 20:07


Edit - The term "Voluntary Interview" is written into the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, and is part of the Codes of Practice issued by the Secretary of State.

I don't think the police had anything to do with it's name.

Edited by Nibbles_bits on Thursday 25th January 20:31