Noble Corruption, Police Prejury: What Should We Do? (From Morality and the Law, P 91-106, 2001, Roslyn Muraskin and Matthew Muraskin, eds. -- See NCJ-193090)

• NCJ Number: 193097
• Author(s): Martin L. O'Connor J.D.
• Date Published: 2001
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: Prentice Hall Publishing
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter critiques some proposals for countering police perjury.

Abstract

Professor Christopher Slobogin presents a number of measures to assist in reducing police perjury on the witness stand ("Testifying: Police Perjury and What To Do About It," 1996). Some of his proposals have merit, some are impractical, and some propose draconian and problematic changes that require analysis under the mandates of the Fourth Amendment. His proposals include the following: Sensitize the police through training to the immorality and danger of perjury; the prosecution should provide the defense with information about police perjury when it comes to their attention; police departments should be restructured to be less adversarial, similar to the European model; the warrant requirement should be expanded to all "non-exigent searches and seizures," and the exigent warrant exception should be narrowly defined; the police should be required to produce their informants before an issuing magistrate; lay persons should be required to accompany the police when they search a house, so there would be a neutral source of information about the search; subject police witnesses to lie detection; convict and fire police officers who commit perjury; and abolish the exclusionary rule of evidence and make probable cause more flexible. The author of this chapter argues that there is not sufficient information about police perjury to pursue most of the reform strategies that have been suggested. He recommends conducting research in a variety of police agencies throughout the country, with a focus on the frequency, extent, and nature of the problem of police perjury. For immediate action, he recommends that police supervisors and administrators act to raise the consciousness level of the police regarding police perjury; that management systems be established to monitor the actions and testimony of police officers; and that compliance with the U.S. Constitution be made the measure of all police actions. 51 references