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Lying cops...

Should cops be allowed to lie when interrogating someone?

  • Total voters
    46
Kal'Stang said:
Should cops be allowed to lie when interrogating someone for a crime?
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it may depend on the crime one is accused of..

because it is disgusting to see them show zero tolerance to the students ,workers or ordinary citizens trying to protect their own rights
 
It was a technique some used, but I was never comfortable with it. It always struck me as dishonorable, and I always felt that we ought to stand for something better than that.

The surest way to lose is to sink to their level...
 
What would happen if I lied when the police were questioned me?
 
Kal'Stang said:
Should cops be allowed to lie when interrogating someone for a crime?
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I say that legally they should not be allowed to lie.And if a cop does lie to get a so called confession it should be brought to the attention of the jury that the cop did lie. Many people won't risk fighting to prove their innocence if they believe the evidence is stacked against them and this leads to innocent people confessing to crimes they did not commit. Besides that police should be seen as trust worthy,more trust worthy than your average citizen. Police being allowed to lie creates a perception that police are untrustworthy liars and therefore corrupt. This helps facilitate a no snitch culture that plagues many communities.
 
jamesrage said:
I say that legally they should not be allowed to lie.And if a cop does lie to get a so called confession it should be brought to the attention of the jury that the cop did lie. Many people won't risk fighting to prove their innocence if they believe the evidence is stacked against them and this leads to innocent people confessing to crimes they did not commit. Besides that police should be seen as trust worthy,more trust worthy than your average citizen. Police being allowed to lie creates a perception that police are untrustworthy liars and therefore corrupt. This helps facilitate a no snitch culture that plagues many communities.
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THIS!! A 1000 times THIS! Cops should be of higher quality than the average citizen. People should look up to them and not see them as lying pigs.
 
MaggieD said:
I disagree. It is certainly NOT the same as beating the hell out of a suspect to get a confession. How effective is a lie on an innocent person? "We found your fingerprints on the knife." "No, no you didn't."
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I am sure that after you say "no you didn't" they tell you that if you confess you can get drastically less time or not face a death penalty or if you fight this and lose you will be punished to the fullest extent of the law and or get the death penalty. You are dirt poor, so chances are you will be given some fresh law school graduate or a lousy attorney as a public defender who has to go against a very experienced prosecutor. I am sure a lot of people in that situation will confess to a crime they didn't get even though logic should dictate that if the police had all the evidence they needed to convict you then they wouldn't need your confession.
 
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Kal'Stang said:
The problem being that not everyone the police interrogate is guilty of a crime.
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That is not the point Kal" stang just what do you mean by lying. If Im interrugating a person of interest and I recieved information from their neighbor and through the line of questioning the person of interests says my neighbor told you that...do you want me to say yes and start a rage between two neighbor.
Or do you consider lying if im interrugating someone and I say "WE KNOW" you were at such and such place and we dont know. Or when we say anything to them to draw them out to make them slip..just what is a lie to you
 
Kal'Stang said:
Hmm..coercing. A few decades ago they stopped police from hiding behind bill boards, bushes etc etc due to it being entrapment. Could a cop lieing during an interrogation be considered the same also?
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When did they stop that?
 
If everyone thought like some of the people on this board, crimes would never get solved.

Don't talk to the cops...lawyer up immediately.
Don't even answer their questions...you don't have to, you know.
Cops shouldn't be able to lie.
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I'd be interested to see what you thought of these tactics if it was your daughter found dead lying by the side of the road. Nobody will talk to the cops. Everybody lawyers up. Yeah, that'll make the streets safer. Yes. Yes, it will.

One only has to look at how that philosophy works in our inner-cities to know it's a failure.
 
lpast said:
That is not the point Kal" stang just what do you mean by lying. If Im interrugating a person of interest and I recieved information from their neighbor and through the line of questioning the person of interests says my neighbor told you that...do you want me to say yes and start a rage between two neighbor.
Or do you consider lying if im interrugating someone and I say "WE KNOW" you were at such and such place and we dont know. Or when we say anything to them to draw them out to make them slip..just what is a lie to you
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The definition of lying is not subjective. It means one thing. A lie is when someone says something that they know is not true. Plain and simple.
 
MaggieD said:
If everyone thought like some of the people on this board, crimes would never get solved.



I'd be interested to see what you thought of these tactics if it was your daughter found dead lying by the side of the road. Nobody will talk to the cops. Everybody lawyers up. Yeah, that'll make the streets safer. Yes. Yes, it will.

One only has to look at how that philosophy works in our inner-cities to know it's a failure.
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Let's put it this way, if you have nothing to hide, then talk to the cops all you want. If you are guilty, however, I would discourage it.
 
Fisher said:
Let's put it this way, if you have nothing to hide, then talk to the cops all you want. If you are guilty, however, I would discourage it.
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You probably shouldn't talk at all to the cops regardless of guilt or innocence.

 
Fisher said:
Let's put it this way, if you have nothing to hide, then talk to the cops all you want. If you are guilty, however, I would discourage it.
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I agree. Cops are too well-seasoned and too well-trained, and can easily confuse people - espesscially people who may not be the sharpest crayon in the box. How many innocent people are sitting in prison today because a cop needed to close a case, and didn't have the evidence to do it?

Thank GOD for places like The Innocence Project - Home. They are there to help people when the lazier cops have to get that arrest, regardless of the way they get it.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
The definition of lying is not subjective. It means one thing. A lie is when someone says something that they know is not true. Plain and simple.
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Then you will never get what you want when it comes to police interrogations, you obviously know nothing about them how they do and must work. I will not debate a topic thats based on the absurd expectation
 
Yes without a doubt. The problem is you should not be talking to the police if you are under arrest without council, period. In fact as a rule of thumb never answer any questions from police outside of name address without council.
 
lpast said:
Then you will never get what you want when it comes to police interrogations, you obviously know nothing about them how they do and must work. I will not debate a topic thats based on the absurd expectation
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Expecting cops to not lie is absurd? So if a cop tells you during an interrogation "We have everything we need to put you away. If you just confess, I can make sure the judge let's you off easy." when absolutely none of that is remotely true, you think that's completely just and fair game? What about all of the innocent people who are just too stupid to know that cops are a bunch of lying pieces of ****?

I have this crazy idea that we should hold our public servants to a higher standard than a bunch of lying **** heads.
 
jamesrage said:
You probably shouldn't talk at all to the cops regardless of guilt or innocence.

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Ha! I watched both of these videos last year and it really had a profound effect on me. I had no idea how much could go wrong just talking to cops even if you're completely innocent.
 
ThePlayDrive said:
I will say that I would never so much as enter an interrogation room without a lawyer - innocent or not. It's crazy to me how many people talk to the police w/o representation.
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Perhaps kids should be taught their rights in school.
 
Muhammed said:
Perhaps kids should be taught their rights in school.
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I made sure I had this talk with my son when he was about 15... I felt bad that I had to tell him "don't trust cops", but having been one I felt that I had no choice...
 
MaggieD said:
That's baloney. A myth perpetrated by, guess who?? Lawyers.

If my loved one is killed, I'm going to be questioned. If I've done nothing wrong, you can damned well betcha' I'm going to be answering cops' questions immediately. The so-called 48-hour window isn't a myth. Time is everything in a murder investigation. The faster the cops can rule me out . . . the faster I can give information about my loved one's schedule, enemies, etc., etc., the closer cops can get to finding the perp.

If I had a police record, I would probably feel differently. But the idea that the cops are "out ta' gitcha" is ridiculous. They're out to solve the crime.
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The police are human. They can and often are WRONG. Their business is not cut and dried. They often go by their gut based on exeperiance. They may fixiate on a favorite theory that fits the facts they percieve they have. There is a reason that even if your spouce is murdered you would get an attorney pronto. You the spouce WILL be suspect number one. Most murder of familiy members are commited by the spouce. Thats a fact. ANYTHING you say can and will be used against you. I know you saw that You Tube lecture on why. The gentlemen is absolutely correct in his assertations that you not say anything. The police are NOT going to believe you. Its not their job, their job is to gather evidence to make a case. They DONT know you. They have NO vested interest in you. They are going to follow the forensics and the evidence they have to eliminate you. They WILL lie to you to provoke you to help them make their case AGAINST you. What you say WILL NOT help them eliminate you. There are plenty of people in jail who were wrongly convicted, because of something they said that was taken out of context ect. Procecuters dont care about the truth. They care about wins and what they can PROOVE.
 
MaggieD said:
If everyone thought like some of the people on this board, crimes would never get solved.



I'd be interested to see what you thought of these tactics if it was your daughter found dead lying by the side of the road. Nobody will talk to the cops. Everybody lawyers up. Yeah, that'll make the streets safer. Yes. Yes, it will.

One only has to look at how that philosophy works in our inner-cities to know it's a failure.
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Getting a lawyer to SPEAK FOR YOU is not stupid. Even if I was a witness I would get a lawyer. The legal system is a minefield. Step in the wrong place and YOU WILL GET your hind end handed to you. Its a different world with different rules. Only a fool would would attempt to navigate it without a guide if they were available.
 
jamesrage said:
I say that legally they should not be allowed to lie.And if a cop does lie to get a so called confession it should be brought to the attention of the jury that the cop did lie. Many people won't risk fighting to prove their innocence if they believe the evidence is stacked against them and this leads to innocent people confessing to crimes they did not commit. Besides that police should be seen as trust worthy,more trust worthy than your average citizen. Police being allowed to lie creates a perception that police are untrustworthy liars and therefore corrupt. This helps facilitate a no snitch culture that plagues many communities.
Click to expand...

While I agree with you inprinciple, de facto I believe that there are cases where lies may need to be peretrated by the police to smoke out suspects. The real world is not the clean place we would like it to be. Reality sucks sometimes. The times where a lie is told I believe there should be strict controls.
 
Should cops be allowed to lie when interrogating someone?

I have to vote "no".
They should not be allowed to lie.
LEO are representatives of the Government.
The Government should not be able to lie to you.

In addition, where it is illegal for a person to lie to and investigator, it should be illegal for an investigator to lie to that person.



The only exception I can see for this is if there is an immediate concern for safety.
Such as a person who has hidden a gun they had used in a crime, in a grocery store, in their attempt to get away.

In this limited exception LE would be able to lie and trick and coerce for the safety of others, but not be allowed to use against the individual that which they found out.
 
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