Ingrid Centurion and Rocky Burke discuss the Garrity Warning. A Garrity warning is a notification of rights given to public employees during an internal investigation. It protects them from being compelled to incriminate themselves in criminal proceedings by informing them of their right to remain silent and that any statements made can't be used against them in a criminal case. This protection stems from the Supreme Court case Garrity v. New Jersey, which established that employees cannot be forced to choose between self-incrimination and job loss. Appellants, police officers in certain New Jersey boroughs, were questioned during the course of a state investigation concerning alleged traffic ticket "fixing." Each officer was first warned that: anything he said might be used against him in a state criminal proceeding; he could refuse to answer if the disclosure would tend to incriminate him; if he refused to answer, he would be subject to removal from office. The officers' answers to the questions were used over their objections in subsequent prosecutions, which resulted in their convictions. The State Supreme Court, on appeal, upheld the convictions despite the claim that the statements of the officers were coerced by reason of the fact that, if they refused to answer, they could, under the New Jersey forfeiture of office statute, lose their positions.