A recent podcast from Reveal covers the topic of police in the U.S. notifying next of kin when police kill someone. But as part of the notification, the police first ask questions about the deceased without revealing the person's death. The questions seem to focus on uncovering faults of the deceased and then the answers are generally used by the police as a defense when the next of kin seek justice in wrongful death lawsuits. As far as I know, the questions are not used for charging someone, thus I don't know that incrimination and pleading the fifth apply.
This seems to be a somewhat deplorable practice. I realize a lot of people won't be familiar with this practice, but say one is aware of this and the cops show up at the home asking about a family member who hasn't been seen for a few hours or days and they start asking questions about the person? Is it okay for one to tell the cops to just cut to the chase or do they have to sit through this questioning?
This question is considered a duplicate of Alternatives to pleading the 5th that also offers protection
However, that applies to police questioning suspects with the intent to charge that person, while the questioning that occurs here seems to be the police just snooping so that they can cover their butts. I don't think the context is the same thing. So, I've edited to make this point. Furthermore, as I already stated, the police are there because they're supposed to be informing next of kin about the death of someone. What does a person do if they think the police are up to something and the police are being evasive until they get their questions answers? Does that person say to police, "I want a lawyer (or plead the fifth), but in the meantime, tell me what you are here for?" What if the cops reply, 'you're not under investigation, we just want to ask about [the deceased]', without letting on they have notification to give?
