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by filoeleven 921 days ago
Yeah. Also, the police are legally allowed to lie to you, but you are not legally allowed to lie to the police.

I’m not interested in lying to the police, but when I know that they can lie to me, it’s a big disincentive to say anything to them at all. This is a problem.
1 comments
mrandish 921 days ago
As a pretty staunch civil libertarian, I agree with you about the asymmetry in rights. However, I'm curious about the statement:

> "you are not legally allowed to lie to the police."

I know that lying under oath in a court is perjury and in certain contexts some investigative agencies like the FBI can put you under oath and in that specific case materially false statements can be actionable. And I know that filing a false police report is against the law but I think that usually requires signing the report and it spells out that lying on the statement is perjury.

But, in the scenario of a police officer just walking up and asking you questions on a street corner, prior to arresting or detaining you, is anything you say about anything which is later deemed to be false or misleading cause for arrest? Maybe it is but I'm trying think of what law it would be violating. I do know that civil libertarians say that if a police officer talks to you, you can ask "Am I being detained?" and if they don't answer "Yes" you are free to just walk away.

My naive prior understanding is that things are more complicated and conditional than simply "Lying to a cop anytime, anywhere is always grounds for arrest and prosecution (even absent any other grounds for arrest)" but perhaps I was misinformed on this.

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bitwize 921 days ago
If the police are feds, you can catch up to 5 years in the slammer for "making false statements" to them. This law is relatively recent (mid 90s) and was pretty much passed so that the FBI could nail, or twist the arms of, people they think committed a crime but have zero actual evidence against.

State laws about lying to police vary by state. Ask your lawyer.

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owenmarshall 921 days ago
Popehat on 18 USC 1001, a good read:

https://www.popehat.com/2009/09/22/today-in-shut-up-moron-te...

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filoeleven 919 days ago
Good point. I don’t know enough to comment further about the legality of lying to police as a person of interest or as a suspect (who hasn’t been Mirandized?)

It’s shameful though how many false police reports are not prosecuted because they fall in line with the perceived powers of police forces.

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sidewndr46 921 days ago
"Interfering with the lawful duties of a public servant"

Note that the "lawful duties" portion is apocryphal.

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