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Police Ethics

In the ICAP Digest: The lying police officer article, Assistant County Attorney

Karen Kruger used the phrase continuum of deception to state that deception comes in

many different forms. Officer’s dishonesty if caught is will affect him for the rest of his

life. Deception by police officers have mixed views, and it is very possible that it leads to

lying that is considered unethical.

When Kruger started her IACP session with the continuum of deception, she means

that there are many forms of deception, each can be quite similar, yet some are very

distinct. She then give example of that by stating deception used in interrogation to try to

get a confession is good police work, and the entire undercover work is just another form of

deception.

Next, Kruger then tells the story of an officer from Maryland that resisted the advice

from his union lawyer to take a plea for a charge of filling an inaccurate report in his early

days. However, the office act of dishonesty in the past still affects him to this day. Even

after 20 years has been passed, prosecutors still summons him to the court to testify and

explain that incident.

Then Kruger states that while police work is based of fundamental foundation of

ethics and moral codes, deceptions may be considered acceptable. Kruger explains that

there are clear prohibition against deception used with the intent of abuse police authority,

use for personal gain, or to cover the unethical behavior of another officer. However, there
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are deceptions that is deemed acceptable when used for the sole purpose of pursuing the

common good.

Finally, Kruger used philosophers Plato and his mentor to state their philosophy on

Ethics. While Plato thinks that lying is acceptable if it’s for the common good, his mentor,

Aristotle thinks that lying is unacceptable. In the end, deception may or may not be

acceptable, it is a complex matter with mixed views. It is very possible for it to lead to lying

that is unethical. For example, Kruger asked “if you don’t know wherever the information

you’re passing along is false, are you actually telling a lie?” Through this question, the lie

may not be a lie, because the officer themselves may not know if it’s true. Therefore, even

though the lie may be unethical, but the officer can’t be blamed as they do not know if the

information they stated are accurate.

Overall, continuum of deception is used to show examples of many forms of

deception. Officer caught lying will face consequences that follows them forever. While

deception used for common good may be acceptable, it can lead to lying that is considered

unethical as well.