And then you sign the form. Suspects waive their Miranda rights at a high rate because cops for the most part have turned them into a bureaucratic formality, according to George Thomas, a law professor at Rutgers University. Police have learned to be very clever about giving warnings. They make them seem routine. Police usually inform suspects of the rights by reading from a wallet-sized card they carry.
Police can give a detailed explanation if they are so inclined.
Simply reading the rights abides by the letter of Miranda, but not its spirit, since police officers should also be prepared to explain the rights to suspects, according to Dennis Roberts, a criminal-defense lawyer in Oakland, California. It's a talismanic incantation of the words. A ccording to Richard Leo, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, who studies criminal interrogations, police have developed sophisticated and deceptive tactics that allow them to bait suspects into waiving their Miranda rights. Techniques such as the following are fairly typical. In a 1996 case in Sacramento, California, police took Kentrick McCoy into custody, photographed him, and then started to interview him.