http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/chicago101/busted/
For Chicago, anyway.
I think this information indicates that my character has to be brought in for questioning, rather than actually arrested. I wanted her to have both a major antagonist and proponent in the police force - people who would have access to the parts of the building where she was being held.
http://www.youthinformation.com/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=90763
English law is quite well spelled-out here. I wonder if the American system is quite the same.
http://www.ralphbehr.net/lawyer-attorney-5406C99B-C869-42F9-B58B67416343ED64.html#D8472FA6-3FEA-4B08-8F5DFAD38CE14666
Florida law! Very helpful, especially the complete litany of the Miranda rights (slightly different in each state? I'll have pick a state and setting. The interview can happen anywhere. Interrogation, I guess it's called.
IMPORTANT: if you don't speak, or if you in some other way assert your right to remain silent, NOTHING YOU SAY after that (in that interview) can be used as evidence at your trial. The police would likely stop the interview at that point, as they can't hope to get evidence from you to convict you.
This is the quotation (it makes more sense than I do) "If the police continue to question you after you have asserted your right to remain silent, they have violated Miranda. As a result, anything you say after that point -- and any evidence gleaned from that conversation-will not be admissible at your trial."
The Miranda warning is only necessary AFTER an arrest. Answers to questions are admissible evidence before an arrest without the warning.
