What Should You Do If You Are Arrested In Nashville?

When folks hear about arrests, they immediately think of acts of criminality. The truth is that there are a number of reasons why a person may be arrested by the Police anywhere and at any time. It is the arm of the executive empowered to act in this way. Yes, some countries, as we can see here, make provisions for what is known as citizen’s arrest, but the case will still have to be brought to the Police for investigation and prosecution.

Our focus in this article is not about who ought to make an arrest or the reasons for which an arrest may be made. What we want to focus on here is the appropriate response for a situation like this.

Just in case you think you are a very wonderfully upright person who will never ever get arrested, think again. It is on record that every 3 seconds, someone in America is arrested. That means that there are over 10 million of such arrests on a yearly basis. You can read all about it here: https://theintercept.com/2019/01/31/arrests-policing-vera-institute-of-justice/.

Given the above stats, knowing how to respond if and when arrested by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department or any other Police department is therefore something that every American should know.

We will try to look at this in a sequence.

Step 1 – Do Not Resist Arrest

The first thing you should avoid is resisting arrest when the Police are attempting to arrest you. While you can speak to them and try to clarify things, especially if you think they have the wrong person, physically resisting arrest can bring other charges on you.

Cooperate with the officers with an understanding that you will have enough time to clear your name and to seek redress if you so wish. Just so you know, a lot of things can be classified under resisting arrest. You therefore want to cooperate and be seen to be cooperating with the officers.

Step 2 – Seek to Know Why You are Being Arrested

One question that you are entitled to ask is “what am I being arrested for”? The officers are supposed to tell you why you are being arrested. However, even if they do not tell you why, still do not resist arrest once you are sure that they are police officers.

You should however ask this question at any time there is an arrest attempt on your or someone close to you. Even if you are just being taken in for questioning, you should get some explanation.

Once again, even if these explanations are not given, do not resist an official arrest by the Police. You will have plenty of time and opportunity to even sue for redress if you choose. Aside from escalating issues and incurring a separate charge, resisting arrest has led to several cases of Police shooting.

Step 3 – Ask to Contact Someone

Once you arrive at the Police station, you should immediately request to have a phone call or someone contacted for you. Yes, you may not be allowed to make the phone call yourself but you are entitled to having someone contacted for you.

This will usually be the best time to get in touch with your attorney or someone you can really depend on. This person will play a major role in what happens to your going forward, so you should choose carefully.

Step 4 – Get Legal Representation

With proper legal representation, you may find yourself out of holding before you’ve even settled down there. This is because some offences have pre-stated bail amounts which once paid, the individual can make bail.

At this point also, the Police must make your offence known (if they had not before now). This will help your attorney know how to proceed. If the offence has no pre-stated bail amount, then there may be the need to immediately file for a bail hearing. Your lawyer may also be help you arrange for a bail bonds service like https://bailbondsnational.com/nashville/ should the bail amount stipulated by the court be more than what you can afford.

Conclusion

That a person is arrested does not automatically mean that they have committed any offence. It just means that the Police thinks that they have committed an offence. Even if an offence has been committed, the individual still has some rights.

This is why it is important to not just know your rights, but to also know how to go about demanding it. If you read through carefully, you will note that we constantly emphasized the need to avoid any form of resisting arrest. Once you know your rights and you know what to do, you will not need to resist the arrest even when wrong. You will have a lot of opportunities to clear your name and seek redress.