Just because the arresting officer didn’t read you your rights doesn’t mean you can beat your case. Law enforcement agents are only required to read you your rights if both:

(1)  you’re under arrest, and

(2)  they want to ask you questions

So if the officers haven’t arrested you yet, they can ask you questions without reading you your rights, and your statements will still be used against you in court. For example, during a conversation or a detention. the police don’t have to read you your rights. As you can guess, a smart cop may try to get all his questions answered before officially arresting the suspect.

Sometimes, officers don’t bother to read the Miranda rights, because they don’t really need to question the suspect. There may be good eye witnesses or surveillance tapes. Or the suspect may just be babbling, as Kaitlin did in Five Finger Discount. After all, why would an officer interrupt with questions if the suspect keeps on making stupid statements without any prompting?

The moral of the story is, don’t wait for the police to read you your rights. They may not do it at all, or they may at least wait until you’ve already made lots of damaging statements.