Top Chicago Criminal Defense Lawyer Robert J. Callahan On Getting Arrested
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Robert: …what actually happens during an actual arrest and reality. People are going to call 911 and they’re going to say what happened, some of the times, you know, what actually transpired. And that will almost never match the narrative in the police reports. Same thing with the dispatch recordings, police are going to be saying things over the radio that they need to make an arrest or to follow a suspect or do an investigation that they’re not going to include in their report and they’re not even going to mention later on down the line. Especially if it doesn’t hurt, especially if it does hurt their case or what their theory of the case is. What they believe happened.
V.O.: Yea that’s, it’s pretty amazing how they can kind of work the system to their advantage. I guess that’s kind of why you do your job.
Robert: Yeah, and they’re just doing a job too. I used to take it personally and I used to get angry. Now, police officers in Chicago, they have a tough job. They’re doing the best they can with what they’ve got. And there is, it’s a dangerous job. They’re dealing with dangerous people a lot of the time. So, they’re going to keep themselves safe. And the way they’re looking at it, and this is good to kind of, I kind of think about it as like understanding the enemy. I put myself in their shoes and I get a little better understanding of what their testimony is going to be, it helps me to prepare. I get a better overall idea of what actually transpired and I can use that in defending the case. You’re better off not taking these things personally. The best cops don’t take any of this personally. The best lawyers don’t take any of this personally. One of the reasons for that, that I’ve learned, is you let emotions get involved in these things it can affect your decision making process. It can make you less effective at executing whatever your trial strategy is, your courtroom strategy, your investigation strategy. So I try to look at it as objectively as possible when I go in. And I have nothing, there is no, I’ll go in the back and shake hands with the police officers after these things are over sometimes and they understand we’re both just doing our jobs. And that can be done in a respectful way also. So I don’t know if that answered your question in particular.