Police Dishonesty

I suppose that I should not have been surprised at having a police officer lie to me.

The public face of the police

"I believe that support primarily flows from the confidence those policed have in our values. That we exemplify integrity, moral courage, impartiality, duty and honour."

(Extract from a statement by Ken Jones, Chief Constable of Sussex Police and chair of the ACPO Standing Committee on Complaints and Discipline, to the Morris Inquiry into Professional Standards and Employment Matters in the Metropolitan Police Service)

The public's opinion of the police

Q1 Now I will read you a list of different types of people. For each would you tell me if you generally trust them to tell the truth, or not?

	Tell the truth	Not tell the truth%	Don't know %
Doctors	90	6	4
Teachers	88	9	4
Television news readers	62	25	13
Professors	77	10	13
Judges	76	16	8
Clergymen/Priests	73	19	9
Scientists	70	18	12
The Police	58	32	10
The ordinary man/woman in the street	55	31	14
Pollsters	50	31	20
Civil servants	43	44	13
Trade Union officials	37	46	17
Business leaders	24	62	13
Journalists	20	76	8
Politicians generally	20	73	7
Government ministers	20	71	9

Figures quoted are from a MORI poll of over 2,000 UK adults, February 2005