Suspect Businesses

How important is interviewing a suspect before arresting when possible?

I have asked many questions involving evidence, and arrest procedures, I am just wondering in the course of an investigation, how important is it to try and get an interview first. It seems that it is very rare that there is enough evidence to have the so-called slam dunk case. Very rarely the evidence collected initially is so overwhelming that officers can just go out and arrest the suspect without an interview and charge them. So my question is, when possible how important is an interview with the suspect, or suspects before seeking arrest warrants or just plain charging them. For instance, you have a burglary or robbery, while processing the scene you find some physical evidence inside of the location, that is not easily, or normally assessable to anyone but the victim, later you match the evidence to a suspect that is not known by the victim. This is obviously damning evidence, so is an arrest warranted or should an interview be next. I know cases are like puzzles so it seems that an interivew (when p

Public Comments

1. Miranda warnings do not apply until after an arrest, so it is standard procedure to attempt to get as much information as possible before the arrest takes place.
2. "Anything you say can or will be held against you". It's hard to lie on the spot, interviewing early has the potential to exonerate or incriminate someone more easily. Police always say the first 48 hours are the most important, because after that the possibility that evidence or stories could be manipulated to present a dishonest viewpoint increases.
3. An interview or an interrogation? An interview is very important and is not only done with the suspect(s), but with witnesses and others involved in a situation. There is a lot of information to be gained from people during an interview process and is generally done before an arrest is made. Your interview process will help you gain the information needed for an arrest. After the arrest (and after miranda) is when the interrogation happens. It should be noted that some departments in order to be more politically correct do not refer to them as interrogations, because it brings up images of bamboo under the finger nails and waterboarding.