Do cops ever tell a lie?

Answer 1

Ideally, a policeman should be a model of honesty and trustworthiness. This would mean that lying should not even occur to him.

We do not live in an ideal world and police can and often will lie to further their investigation.

Answer 2

The police are allowed to lie when questioning suspects they believe have committed criminal offenses, (particularly serious ones) - and especially when questioning hardened criminals, police can, and do, use subterfuge as part of their interrogation techniques. Police officers (like everyone else) may not lie when testifying under oath.

A common type of lie used in interrogation is getting a suspect to believe their partners in the crime have informed on them and that they can give them up to save themselves. So the police might have no information at all, just multiple suspects with ties to each other, and they tell each of them that the others involved have told on them. As each tell a small piece of the crime, that information is then used as leverage to gain more information from the others. This approach is also used to get confessions for minor parts of the crime. "Oh, okay, I drove the getaway car, but the other two went in there armed, and I guess killed those people." So at the least, that person would be charged as an accomplice. But if everyone confesses to a minor role in the crimes and implicates the rest for the heavier crimes, then the police would likely charge them all with everything and let the courts figure it out.

The police are allowed to lie during undercover operations or stings. A common question that lawbreakers ask is, "Are you a police officer?" Saying yes could damage the operation and not get the necessary evidence of criminal activity, or at worst, put the officer's life in jeopardy. However, the police are not allowed to create crimes out of thin air. For instance, you don't get to pretend to be a mob boss and threaten non-criminals into joining the mob and then lock them up for the crimes you recruited them to do. That is called entrapment, since those people would have never committed the crimes without enticement or extortion from the police.

Answer 3

A law enforcement officer may use deception while investigating a case, so long as the deception isn't made while under oath or something that would cause another person to confess to something they didn't do. For instance, an undercover narcotics officer does not have to reveal that he is the police if asked.

For another example, say that an officer is interrogating a burglary suspect. The officer tells the suspect that his fingerprints were found at the crime scene, when in fact no prints were recovered. This is a permissible lie, because the suspect would know his prints were not at the crime scene if he had never been there. He would not confess to the burglary, and would know the officer was lying.

Another example would be where a woman is being interrogated about a robbery. The officer tells the women that if she does not confess, she will never see her children again. An innocent person might confess to something they didn't do in that circumstance, because they value access to their children more than their freedom. That kind of lie would not be allowed.

In court, or in a sworn statement, officers may not lie. If they are found lying under oath, they can be disciplined and charged with false swearing or perjury, both of which are serious criminal offenses.