Michigan case offers an example of how public trust suffers when police officers lie

By COREY WILLIAMS
Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — A white officer in suburban Detroit lied to a Black pedestrian by identifying an officer from another force as his supervisor during a 2021 police stop. The officer wasn’t disciplined and his chief says in a deposition in Brian Chaney’s wrongful detention lawsuit that “an officer can lie in the field when he’s not under oath.” But with American trust in police plummeting, buttressed by cellphone and bodycam videos that can expose untruths, a profession once broadly considered above reproach has seen its reputation suffer. In a 2023 Gallup poll, 43% of respondents said they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the police, down from 51% in 2021 and 64% in 2004. Gallup says 43% is an all-time low.