Communication Skills with the Public Security Bureau Before Requesting Arrest

Before the request for arrest, the main channels through which lawyers obtain case information are from the suspect themselves and the public security authorities. Therefore, at this stage, communication between lawyers and the public security authorities is particularly crucial for effective defense. In practice, there are many reasons that may cause young lawyers to encounter certain difficulties when communicating with the public security authorities. To achieve good communication with the public security authorities, it is recommended to first understand the daily work of the public security authorities, and then follow the principles of "necessary courtesy and appropriate empathy".

I. Key Points for Communicating with the Police to Understand the Case Situation

Charge, facts, sentencing circumstances, and circumstances of arrest

Communicate with the investigators from the public security authorities. First, understand the charges during the investigation stage, the possible additional charges, the basic facts of the defendant's criminal involvement, the current statutory sentencing circumstances, the discretionary sentencing circumstances, and the defendant's arrival situation, etc. Based on the aforementioned basic information, the lawyer can determine the complexity of the case, the possible future course of the case, the possible judicial judgment thinking of the judicial authorities, the possible sentencing range, the difficulty of presenting an innocence or mitigated guilt defense, and the reasonable expectation of the case defense outcome.

During communication, if it is discovered that the facts being investigated by the police and the sentencing circumstances are inconsistent with the information obtained by the lawyer from the suspect, the suspect should be verified and relevant evidence (or evidence clues) should be fixed. Then, the evidence (or evidence clues) should be submitted to the police to restore the relevant facts of the suspect and enhance the defense effect during the investigation stage.

2. Information on accomplices

In most cases, there are situations of joint crimes. Lawyers should not only communicate the client's case situation with the handler, but also need to simultaneously obtain information about the co-defendants. For example, they need to understand the composition of the joint crime group, the criminal facts and roles of the co-defendants, in order to determine the probability that the client is identified as an accessory in the joint crime; they need to know whether all the co-defendants have been apprehended, and then combine this with the bail pending trial for a certain suspect to determine the probability that the public security authorities will grant bail to that suspect during the investigation stage; they need to understand the sequence of the arrival of other co-defendants, who confessed the main criminal facts first in the first interrogation record, etc., in order to judge whether the client is a suspect who has been apprehended normally and whether they may be considered as having made a confession of guilt; they need to understand the confession situation of the co-defendants, in order to help the client adjust the defense plan in a timely manner.

3. Present and submit the defense statement

Based on the evidence and case information obtained from the suspects and the public security authorities, the lawyer should formulate a written defense opinion and relevant evidence (clues) or materials related to the suspect, and submit them to the handler. After submitting the defense opinion, the lawyer should follow up on the communication with the handler, understand the adoption status of the relevant defense opinions by the public security authorities, whether the favorable evidence for the suspect has been fixed, whether the facts determined by the public security authorities have changed, and the subsequent investigation direction of the public security authorities, in order to dynamically adjust the defense plan in the investigation stage. In addition to the defense opinion, when the suspect has been detained for more than twenty days, it is recommended that the lawyer submit an application for release on bail. Before the expiration of the 30-day criminal detention period, the lawyer should maintain communication with the public security authorities, promptly understand the progress of the case, and understand whether the case is referred to the procuratorate for approval of arrest, or decided on release on bail, or even withdrawn.

In conclusion, when communicating with the police, lawyers mainly need to understand the charges, facts, sentencing circumstances, the arrival status of each suspect in the joint crime, the behavior and role of the suspect in the joint crime, etc. They should make a directional prediction about the future trend of the case.

II. Methods of Communication with the Public Security Bureau

In practice, young lawyers often encounter the situation where they need to communicate with the public security authorities, but it is difficult to obtain the case information. How to effectively start the communication? It is suggested that young lawyers first design the outline and questions for the communication. By asking key points, they can understand the information that the lawyer wants to know from the perspective of defense. Given that the investigation work is in a dynamic state, the information obtained by the lawyer through communication with the public security authorities at different stages of the case progress may also change. For example, as the investigation scope expands, the number of charges, facts, criminal amount or circumstances may increase. How to comprehensively understand the facts that have been investigated at present? For instance, the lawyer can ask the person in charge of the investigation at the public security authority how many sections of the facts have been currently investigated? If it is an economic crime, they can ask about the current amount of the involved assets, thereby correlating the legal penalty to infer the social harm of the case and the difficulty of defense; they can also try to understand whether the case needs an audit, to determine the complexity of the case. Asking about the legal circumstances currently recognized by the investigation authority can help infer the possible sentencing opinions of the subsequent judicial authorities.

Based on the aforementioned communication points, how to effectively apply for bail pending trial to the public security authorities before requesting an arrest is the key task of the lawyer's work during this stage.