Throughout life, we are often taught the police are shining examples of truth, justice, and decency. Police are always to be trusted and are the go to option whenever an issue arises. Seeing as how this is engrained into our culture, it is quite difficult to convince people that officers are just like us. If their jobs are on the line, they will lie to protect themselves instead of doing what is right. It is a very common, and quite frankly natural response within our society. Whether it be a retail, corporate, industrial, teaching, or food service kind of job; at some point we have all either lied or given half-truths in order to keep our positions. You would have to be lying to yourself to believe that they would not do the same.

In a New York Times opinion piece by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Alexander goes on to slam the New York Police Department. Exposing many instances where police would lie, how they would do it, and why they have a good reason to do so.

“But are police officers necessarily more trustworthy than alleged criminals? I think not. Not just because the police have a special inclination toward confabulation, but because, disturbingly, the have an incentive to lie. In this era of mass incarceration, the police shouldn’t be trusted any more than any other witness, perhaps less so.” (Alexander, Why Police Lie Under Oath).

From that point, Alexander goes on to paint police officers as ordinary people or the people deemed as criminals. They have a reason to lie. Whether that means they have a specific arrest or ticket quota to meet or if it is used to protect themselves or a fellow officer, if they have the ability to lie more often than not they will take it. Even if they are known to be lying, jurors would still trust the words of a police officer more than they would a criminal. Simply for the fact that, it is a police officer against a criminal. However with a written account from former San Francisco Police commissioner, Peter Keane, can serve as the stepping stone into changing thoughts on police integrity.

“Police officer perjury in court to justify illegal dope searches is commonplace. One of the dirty little not-so-secrets of the criminal justice system is undercover narcotics officers intentionally lying under oath. It is a perversion of the American justice system that strikes directly at the rule of law. Yet it is routine way of doing business in courtrooms everywhere in America.” (Keane, Why Police Lie Under Oath).

Police officers should not have such an easy time being able to get away with murder and excessive force on American citizens by lying and having the media covering for them. It is our tax dollars that pay them. Our hard earned money that supports officers to continue to hurt innocent people and kill suspects when they should face trial. As difficult as it is, our society must come to the realization and accept that the police are not the heroes they once swooned over. With so much evidence of what police officers are capable of doing to get away with their heinous acts, it is a complete mockery of what they call and what we know as justice. We most look pass the media coverage that continues to paint all police officers as paragons of truthfulness, decency, and righteousness. As well as take the narratives created by the police with more skepticism. For of these things do not change, at any moment, it can be your death or assault that a police officer is lying about to get away with.