Palo This is a legitimate question based on my past experiences. You say;
"Not answering that question could get you arrested, although a GOOD officer will give you ample warning e.g. "if you don't tell me your name, you will be arrested" or something like that. That is good practice and consistent with verbal judo principles"
How do I know if the officer is telling the truth and in fact can arrest me for not telling him my name.
I have had Cops tell me your buddy just told us the whole story you might as well come clean because we already know.
If you tell us what you did we will not arrest you.
If you do not tell us the whole story your girlfriend/wife is going to jail right now.
I never fell for any of that but it sure did not prevent them from lying in an attempt to get PC to arrest me.
I have been lied to by Cops so many times that I do not trust anything that comes out of their mouths on the street. On the other hand I have been good friends with several Cops over the years one of which spent a lot of time attempting to put me in jail based on misinformation supplied by an informant. 25 years later we sat down over a six pack and both of us were shocked to learn how wrong we were about the other. I never did the crimes he thought I had, I was shocked to know that he thought I had. That explained the search warrants and all those stops where I was proned out and searched.
Your thoughts
Generally speaking, there is a body of case law surrounding miranda that governs what "tactical deception" (lies) can be used and what can't regarding getting you to divulge X. Cops can't engage in ruses that "shock the conscience". for example. they can't pose as a priest to get you to confess to them. Some cops in WA wrote a ruse letter to a suspect in order to get his DNA (cause he;d lick the return envelope). The courts ruled that lie did not shock the conscience.
There was a case where a cop used a colander and a Xerox machine and told a suspect it was a lie detector. and put a piece of paper in the Xerox machine that said "you are lying" to get the perp to think it was catching him in lies and he needed to tell the truth.
That was kosher per the courts.
I can't go into endless detail about what can and can't be used to convince you to tell them the truth because it literally would be an endless wall of text, but I can tell you if you have waived your right to remain silent, cops can engage in pretty inventive ruses to get you to tell the truth. However, they are substantially more limited in engaging in ruses to get you to talk in the first place (iow if you haven'[t explicity waived your right to remain silent). Those are very different situations and the courts frown on cops using trickery or pressure to get somebody to waive their rights in the first place. For example, if a cop said "you won't get any jail time if you agree to talk to me now" that confession would get suppressed in a heartbeat
You are asking a bunch of very broad questions that would require a LOT of case law to discuss in detail.
PERSONALLY, I almost never use tactical deception (lies) no matter what. Imo, my credibility is more important than getting any particular confession or whatever, and I frequently deal with the same criminals over and over. I would way rather have rock hard credibility and trust, from criminals, defense attorneys, prosecutors, etc. where they KNOW if I say X, that X is absolutely the truth. Imo, nothing is more important to a cop than his credibility. Nothing.
That's not to say that I don't think tactical deception is ethical. In some situations I think it is, and if you study enough game theory (googe "prisoner's dilemma" ) I think you might agree with me.
Again, lots of case law. During interrogations cops cannot lie about penalties e.g. they can't say "if you tell me the truth, I will make sure the prosecutor offers you probation". If that's a lie, that vitiates the confession you gave in response to that
Cops cannot pressure you TO waive your rights, but they can use certain forms of pressure IF you have waived your rights, to try to get the right story.
A cop certainly can't lie like if you ask him "am I free to leave" and he says "yes" and then you walk away and he arrests you because you were NOT free to leave. That would never fly in court.
google tactical deception police practices etc. and you can find TONS of case law if you are really interested. The most basic rule I can explain is that cops can't lie such that the lie would entice an INNOCENT person to confess, they can't lie such that it pressures a person to waive their rights. The waiver has to be voluntary and informed. They can lie in those situations like saying your partner confessed already when he hasn't.. That's a common tactic and perfectly legal.
If I can toot my own horn here. I consider myself pretty talented at getting confessions and that's WITHOUT using lies. However, one of my beat partners worked homicide for about 10 yrs though and works patrol now. Her interview / interrogation technique is frigging absolutely insanely good. It's a beautiful thing to behold. I would love to one day be as good at interrogation as she is. I went to grad school for psychology and learned a fair bit about interviews there, but she is on an entirely different level. She can get inside somebody's head like nobody's business and when she is talking to them, they want to confess. It's just beautiful. And I've never once see her do anything remotely resembling lying. She is totally straightforward. We are damn lucky to have her as one of the good guys, and doing god's work getting confessions from some bad actors. She is quite a force for justice. Just amazing.
