Police have been reading suspects their rights—the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney—since 1966 when the Supreme Court ruled that suspects’ confessions were inadmissible in court if the suspects had not been advised of their rights. The Miranda rule was a way to rein in officers who were so eager to get convictions for suspects that they used abusive means to obtain questionable confessions. The Court viewed the Miranda warning as a way to police the police and protect suspects’ rights, but the rule is now at the center of an intense legal debate about whether the rule handcuffs police and allows the guilty to go free.

Opponents of the Miranda rule argue that the courts are forced to set many criminals free because police failed to properly advise suspects of their rights...