“Never talk to the police” is impractical. Not everyone pulled over on a traffic stop has the time and money to be obstructive. (Or afford the ticket they might smile their way out of.)
Better, maybe: never concede. And if it goes beyond the sundry, call counsel. (If you don’t have counsel, weigh being technically correct and massively inconvenienced against being pleasant but subordinate.)
TL; DR If they’re asking about felonies, shut up. If they’re telling you off for a tail light, ehhh!
Why? I say this as someone with personal counsel on retainer, and who has been pulled over but not gotten a ticket in a decade. I’m legally conservative but also practical.
Most people don’t have the time to be arraigned every time they might have gone five over. “Never talk to the police” means every random stop turns into interrogation. That simply isn’t the baseline risk for most of us.
And I'm saying that as an award winning investigative journalist who focuses on transparency and police misconduct. This is the first time in years where I only have one lawsuit against a police agency. I also have counsel on retainer :)
I believe your advice is bad because it's being given to a wide audience that very likely doesn't know better.
It's not terrible advice, it's the same advice you will hear from many lawyers. If a cop pulls you over because you were blatantly speeding - saying nothing, or admitting to it and apologising, are both reasonable things to do. Never talking to police is a safer blanket decision, but you can have some grey area.
My trick when pulled over is to play not speaking the local language very well (in the US, that would be English). Worked 4 times out of 5, they just don't want to deal with this shit (didn't work in Israel, got a fine).
Better, maybe: never concede. And if it goes beyond the sundry, call counsel. (If you don’t have counsel, weigh being technically correct and massively inconvenienced against being pleasant but subordinate.)
TL; DR If they’re asking about felonies, shut up. If they’re telling you off for a tail light, ehhh!