Make sense to me.
Me, I take a slightly more nuanced approach. If I were to get a call from, say, Donny Chung or Jeff Luther at the BCA, or [redacted] from Edina PD, or [redacted and redacted] in MPD or [also redacted] from a sheriff's office in [redacted] or [also redacted] or [well, you get the idea: redacted], my inclination would be to be helpful and complete. That's happened with some of those folks. Got a call from one of them, above, when Gross and I were teaching a CLE seminar, and I didn't even bother to interrupt David (always a risky proposition, anyway --
), stepped out into the hallway, and talked in detail about the matter he'd called about. Worked out for the best, I think. (Remind me, sometime, if you're interested; it's an in-person story.)
If I thought there was any issue where I might even possibly need some legal counsel, I'd be helpful and complete after consulting with counsel, of course.
That's because those individuals have, in various ways, demonstrated to me that they're good, solid, service-oriented cops. (Donny easily could have made my life very uncomfortable back during the 2005 MCPPA repassage thing. He didn't do that -- and not because we're close personal friends, as we're not -- but because he's a good, solid, service-oriented cop, and he's got common sense, as well -- and he'd already demonstrated that to both David Gross and me, years before.)
But J. Random GuyWithABadge? For all I know, he's
better than the guys I know. But I don't
know that, and if he gets any cooperation at all, it'll be because he's persuaded me and my attorney that, yes, the reason that he's asking me whatever he's asking me is something that I've got a reason to cooperate with by answering. Sorry; it's "sure. Happy to talk with you. When's a good time for us to meet with my attorney?"
The downside of that is that if the call really is about what it purports to be about, I'm putting a decent guy, just trying to do his job, to some trouble over something that's probably not worth it to him. And, honest, I'm sorry about that, but that's kind of the way it goes.
