Lying to federal law enforcement (and local law enforcement in most or all jurisdictions) is also a crime, even if you're not under oath. If the FBI knocks on your door and asks if your neighbor committed a particular crime and you say no, and then they can prove that you know he did, you can go to prison. Though I imagine that they often decide against pursuing charges in such cases.
That's why the only answer you ever give to ANY LEO is, "I don't speak to law enforcement without my attorney present." Not a routine traffic stop of course, unless you like being hassled.
If you're guilty or for some reason don't want to divulge what you know (and there are legitimate reasons for that), sure.
But most of us, the overwhelming majority of the time, want to see law enforcement succeed and have nothing to conceal. If there's a robbery next door, I'm going to very happily tell the cops absolutely everything I saw and heard.
Edit: I'm surprised that this post is unpopular. Do you really want to live in a world where people don't help law enforcement find violent criminals?
I can tell you've never experienced the "Robbery next door", because you'd have been deeply underwhelmed with the response. Certainly canvassing the neighborhood isn't a part of it! Now putting aside that fantasy, in the real world most of us encounter police in one of three broad situations:
1.) Traffic stops and accidents.
2.) "Public order" issues (protests, large events, etc)
3.) As victims or perpetrators of a violent crime.
Most of us won't be either side of the equation in #3, virtually all of us will experience #1, and a large proportion will experience #2.
It's also possible that some of us understand that while many good LEO's exist, the bad ones are too damned dangerous and protected by the silence of the good ones. There are also competence, "War on Drugs" and other issues.
edit: Also, just ask literally any attorney what you should say, including those who have nothing at all to do with criminal defense. Then ask them why they all give the same answer as my original post...
I grew up in a large urban area, Miami, and this did in fact happen a couple times. There was a crime committed in the surrounding homes and police came to our door to see if we had any information that could help them.
An attorney is going to tell you what's 100% in your legal interests, since that's their duty. There's always a chance that you say something that incriminates you or reveals that you committed some other crime or similar.
But that's not the only consideration. There's also concern for the well-being of your community, a desire to make it safe for your children, etc. Acting on those interests can supersede the tiny risk that a law abiding citizen takes when speaking to law enforcement.
I'm sure it did, for a violent crime, various drug crimes, etc that's pretty typical. For a house being robbed? A little less typical to interview more than the homeowners, unless there's a reason to suspect the involvement of a neighbor, or they had a security camera/propensity for being nosy.
Remember, the person I responded to was talking about a home robbery, and so was I. Obviously you have to use your own judgement, and if it's the local PD asking about a missing person or a domestic incident, etc, don't be a dick.
About 7 years ago I had the FBI show up at my office and ask me all sorts of weird and leading questions. Not knowing any better I answered them the best I could.
The FBI agents then told me they'd be calling the DA to press charges and have me arrested for lying to a federal agent unless I completely cooperated with them in an investigation and offered them full access to my phones, my home and all my computers.
It is very likely in your best interest to avoid speaking with law enforcement.
The problem is that a lot of people see the police not as a group that protects the people, but one that enforces the law and/or puts people in jail. With the former, you can assume the police will "do the right thing" if possible, because they want the best outcome for the people. With the later, you can assume the well-being of the average citizen is not the concern of the police.
You can probably assume that the wellbeing of people is the concern of many small-town, and generally local LEO's. Most people don't decide to be a beat cop in a suburb because of a power trip (that type dreams of a city), or to solve major crimes; they just want to help people. Unfortunately, they're not most LEO's, and they're not interacting with people where the most crimes are committed.
The problem is more to do with the "average", and the system as a whole. We have a prison industry, terrible public defense, increasingly permissive treatment of fairly shady information gathering, and increasing militarization in urban areas.
The other issue is that Officer Friendly might not shake you down, beat you up, or screw you over. He might shut up and look the other way when Officer Hairy F. Knuckle does though. Blue Wall and all. That's hard to prove or even discuss, but it's painfully real.
Nah, see your downvoters know something you don't. Your neighbor is actually in cahoots with the cops, and staged the robbery, so that you would allow the police into your home for an interview, so that they could plant evidence and arrest you. ;)
Or maybe they have a friend or relative who dated a cop, or maybe they're black in the US in general, be disturbed by the trend of violent policing and excessive imprisonment, worried by the 'blue wall of silence' and its nasty persistence, maybe they went to law school or know someone who did... Lots of reasons that aren't comedy routines to use as strawmen you know.
