http://legalblogwatch.typepad.com/legal_blog_watch/2012/03/blonde-justice-keep-your-mouth-shut-when-police-ask-is-this-you-in-photo.html
Today on the Blonde Justice blog, Elle Woods (or whoever writes the anonymous Blonde Justice blog) addresses an issue that
happens every day, so let's deal with it.What is a wise response here? I suspect that most people, especially people who don't believe they've done anything wrong, would simply say "yes" if they recognized the person in the photo to be themselves. According to Blonde Justice, however, that is a mistake, and the proper response is: "I'm not answering any questions without a lawyer present."
The police come to your house or a detective calls you into the police station, and they show you a photo. It's a photo of you, but you're not doing anything bad, just walking down the street, let's say.
The police officer asks you, "Is this you?"
According to Blonde Justice, police can lie to a suspect during their investigation, and may try to elicit a response by saying they are just trying to "clear possible suspects," or that "as soon as we know if this is you, we can exclude you as a suspect." But Blonde Justice says that the whole reason the police would ask you the question in the first place is because there is some way to incriminate you with the photo, i.e., distinctive clothing in the photo that matches clothing worn by the perpetrator caught on tape during a robbery.
Blonde Justice says she frequently must contend with clients who have identified themselves to the police in this fashion, and who have essentially abandoned their ability to later claim that the person caught on tape committing a crime is not them but rather some other blonde woman, some other 300-pound man with a red lumberjack hat, and so on.
Bottom line, according to Blonde Justice: When the police show you a picture and ask "Is that you?," keep your mouth shut.
