Why Is It Important To Lie On A Witness Stand

In the past, police officers and the public only had their word as their testimony. They had no choice but to try convince the jury that their side of the story was the truth. High profile cases between officers and the public have left the public searching and wanting answers. Some law enforcement departments have added another piece of equipment to their police officers for their added protection, while they patrol the streets. This controversial piece of

The officer was dispatched to respond to a domestic case at the Perez household and was asked my Officer Sommers to question them about the cat poisoning allegations. She detailed how witness #1 and #2 had told her that the defendant had told them he poisoned the cats. They said he told them at the breakfast table. Both witness #1 and #2 made confusing statements about this and witness #1 even denied telling the officer that. The witnesses couldn’t determine what was said at the breakfast table, who was present, where they found out about the anti-freeze, and by who. This officer also wrote in her report that she had to use a translation service in order to better understand the defendant. The defense questioned little parts of the report, such as use of quotations and other nonsense. Speculation:

By making decisions not to take responsibility we are endangering ourselves, our future co workers, and the citizens we will one day serve and protect. If we were to take shortcuts now and not fully learn skills we will need as officers, we may show up to a call for service and not know how to handle something such as a domestic dispute and many lives would be endangered because of it. Recruits should also take personal responsibility for their actions because it shows that they have integrity. Integrity is the most important thing to have as a police officer. Police officers have privileges and access to certain things that the general public does not. They should be trusted to handle those privileges in a responsible manner because they will do the right thing and not take advantage. It is human nature to want to lie to get out of a situation that could get you in trouble. However, as recruits and one day in the future as officers, by taking personal responsibility for our actions, we will tell the truth no matter what the consequences could be simply because it is the right thing to do.

The culture is filled with dishonesty because police can get a pass by lying within the criminal justice system without taking accountability for their actions. Officers should take in perspective that their dishonestly may not only have their careers on the line, but the chances of the accused offender being wrongly convicted based on false reports and statements are can be avoided. Unfortunately, depending on the severity, some police organizations do not find anything wrong with dishonestly. In fact, most police agencies and organization may allow officers to fabricate small things that can be crucial to the

Running Head: SHOULD POLICE OFFIERS WHO LIE BE TERMINATED AS A MATTER OF PUBLIC POLICY

Hey, Melinda did you know “Deception can occur in any or all three stages of the detecting process during the investigation, interrogation, and court testimony” (Ciske, 2009). Criminals have every reason to expect that law enforcement officers are going to use deception against them, just as well as they lie to escape accusation. The law enforcement officers in this situation must take into account what sorts of methods are permissible and what the costs are. However, law enforcement officers have to take into account a confession is a substantial piece of evidence that can be presented in court. If the police have to lie to get a confession, it’s still up to the judge to determine if the suspect confession seems voluntary. People may disagree with police tactics during interrogation; however, police are not trained psychologist their deception during interrogating of a suspect has solved numerous of crimes. Therefore, law enforcement interrogations are videotaped inside the interrogation room to create an objective record of police questioning to which all interested and potentially interested parties may appeal, suspects, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and juries. (Wakefield & Underwager, 2014)

A police officer can be compelled to submit to a polygraph examination under threat of discharge in some states because he has failed to answer questions about his job duties. There is some diversity from lower courts whether officer should be made to take the polygraph test.

If an officer has a previous instance of falsifying testimony, any testimony he gives in the future could be thrown out of court, letting an offender go free.

No matter where law enforcement officers are they should maintain their professionalism. For instance, it does not make a good impression on the public if an officer is off duty and out with his buddies at a bar getting drunk and belligerent. If other patrons know he?s a police officer, it damages his reputation and public image as well as the department he works for. Police should also always be careful of what they say. You never know who could be listening. Perhaps a co-worker?s wife stopped in at the department store for something and another officer made crude comments that were over- heard by the wife. Not only is an incident like that downright rude and unprofessional, it could also be interpreted as harassment. Police officers must realize that they are expected by the community to maintain a level of integrity that others are not held to. This off-duty behavior could be misread as the officer being insincere about his job when on duty.

Police office officers lie for many reasons, some are accepted and some are not. Lies could be important parts of an investigation or violations of law (Peak et al, 2010). “Accepted lying includes police activities to apprehend or entrap suspects” (Peak et al, 2010, p. 224). A good example would be, “We picked your partner up a couple minutes ago and he's being interviewed by the detectives right now. Do you really think he's going to protect you? Maybe you should help yourself out and tell me what really happened" (Hawk, 2014, par. 3). This is not coercive and should not lead an innocent person to plead guilty. Three other situations where forms of lying is accepted are “offering the illegal action as part of a larger socially

Police officers support prosecutors because they are both “on the same side”. Between them, they can and do manipulate, suppress,

Lying is an act carried out daily; an act, Loyal D. Rue, professor of Religion and Philosophy at Luther College in Decorah says, “… we can’t survive without...” and is “… a strategy that we use to save ourselves from social and psychological chaos” (World Cat Identities, 2010). Whilst the words, “always tell the truth” and “don’t lie” are repeatedly told to children, as we get older however, always telling the truth becomes harder to carry out in society. Whilst lying is something everyone does, it is condemned and considered unethical by many, and more importantly from a religious perspective (BBC, 2014). Though all religions look down upon lying, it’s important to acknowledge the diversity of attitudes and approaches towards such actions.

In result, Police officers are a crucial part of our American law system but most importantly they have promised to uphold their responsibilities with integrity, bravery, and honesty while risking their lives for citizens’ safety.

Some police join to protect the law and build a safe community some join because. It seems like a cool job or the minority of the group, to be a total jerk. But everyone of these brave officers have a their own minds and may stretch the truth in order for a suspect to get a worse sentence or a

Lying is defined as an attempt to deliberately mislead or deceive another person. Although usually lying is considered as a negative act, it forms an important part of human development. In educational and developmental psychology field, when a child begins to lie, it is considered to be a demonstration that the child is developing socially and cognitively (Warmelink, 2017). As an individual grows up, deception becomes a part of everyday life, with an average person lying around four times a day, with men admitting to lying on average 6 times a day, double of what women reported (Gaille, 2017). Although many believe that they are very good at detecting lies, previous research shows that the average accuracy rate amongst the general population stands at 54% (Bond & DePaulo, 2006), which is only slightly better than detecting it by chance. A study carried out by Vrij and Baxter (1999) have also found that high level of confidence in own ability to detect lies does not correlate with accuracy. In addition, most of research carried out on this topic shown that there is a distinct truth bias: people are better at detecting truth than deception (Vrij & Baxter, 1999). This phenomenon could be down to a human nature. Because majority of people tell the truth most of the time, they expect the same behaviour from others, so when someone lies, it is usually perceived as truth. If an average person is asked to describe traits that would describe a liar they would usually mention a liar