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For some questions that's true it's wrong to call them "fishing expeditions," but the cops are fishing for you to incriminate yourself with their questions. Regular people use "fishing expedition" in a different way and questions which may in some way relate to the reason a cop is asking the question would fall under it. A question like "Where are you coming from?" is not related to why you got pulled over for speeding despite it being a "normal question" which is regularly asked. The same is true for any number of other questions regularly asked by police to people they've pulled over.
Not admitting to the offense you're being pulled over may not "help much," but admitting to it does indeed make it more difficult to contest it. Answering "no" to a question which may be a lie does indeed make you worse off from any case which arises from the interaction. Government agents aren't asking questions in these situations because they're trying to be friendly or create a cordial environment, they're attempting to use social pressure and the power of their position to get you to put yourself in a worse position. Full stop.
Regular people, let alone lawyers, really struggle with what are "normal questions" or "fishing expeditions," and rarely know when they're harming themselves for no benefit. Giving them bright lines in these situations is far better guidance.
Being polite and calm and telling police officers you do not answer questions from police without a lawyer present may not create a "cordial environment," and it may even increase the likelihood some petty cop gives you a ticket over a warning, but it's better to get the ticket than stumble your way into serious problems. The more you talk the more chance mistaken cops can hear consent or reason to make your night even worse.
Your statements are just bad legal guidance.
It is difficult for me to imagine a situation in which refusing to answer any questions will improve your outcome unless you are at risk for uncontrollably blurting out “I have a dead body in the trunk of my car.”
Police have a lot of discretion in how to treat you. I’ve been pulled over several times for speeding and every time gotten off with a warning because I was friendly and polite. I am fairly confident that if I completely bunkered and insisted a lawyer be present my outcomes would’ve been a lot worse, at the very least they would’ve taken up much more of my time.
Assuming you are a normal person guilty of no more than normal traffic violations like speeding (no body in the trunk of your car) it is undoubtedly most advisable to be fully cooperative and polite, answering all questions truthfully and promptly without demands for a lawyer.
This 1000% 99 times out of 100, all the cop wants is to get through their shift without dealing with too many assholes, and they are perfectly happy to reward polite and cooperative behavior with not issuing a ticket. At worst you get a minimum-level traffic citation that you pay online the next day and never think about again.
Going the "am I being detained" route is a good way to get a ride in a squad car, a day wasted in bureaucratic purgatory, and an impounded vehicle (though more likely, you'll just get the max-level citations available for whatever minor traffic violations you've committed). It's a nuclear option only worth taking if you think you're plausibly at risk of consequences worse than a night in jail. It's advice intended to protect you from serious criminal liability likely to result in time behind bars, but for the vast majority of generally law-abiding Americans' interactions with law enforcement, the risk of that happening simply isn't very high. It's an important tool to keep in youe tool box for extreme situations, but massive overkill more likely to hurt than help in 99+% of cases.
The overwhelming vast majority of cops are nowhere near as petty as many of you apparently think they are. If politely telling a cop at a traffic stop you don't answer questions from police without a lawyer present results in you being arrested and taking a ride in the back of a police car, you were not in the category of "a normal person guilty of no more than normal traffic violations like speeding" and we're missing some big details.
Cops simultaneously just want to get through their shift without dealing with assholes, but they're going to escalate a normal person guilty of speeding to an arrest and car ride because they politely and calmly told them they don't answer questions from police? This is silly.
And inevitably, it's the sort of response from people who don't know what they're talking about, their experience consists of being pulled over a couple times and getting off with a warning, therefore answering whatever questions a cop asks of you cannot lead you to an arrest and a car ride.
The problem with this sort of advice is it's wrong; people do, in fact, stumble their way into serious problems because they're answering questions at what they believe is just a normal traffic stop and they're just a normal person. And then when they stop answering questions when the regular layman realizes this isn't just a regular traffic stop with "normal questions," it's just more evidence they're guilty (and thanks to recent court decisions, it could even be evidence in court).
That petty cop who simultaneously will give you a warning or arrest you and throw you in jail over the difference between answering "where are you coming from" and "do you know how fast you were going" and doing what I suggest either doesn't exist or if that cop does exist my suggestion will better protect you than kissing his boots and hoping he'll find some other victim.
And that's why my typical response to comments likes these and the other person's is, "okay, you do that."
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undoubtedly, I encourage you to do whatever you like
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