Cambridgeshire Constabulary
Ethics Playing Cards
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5
Is it ok to sometimes lie and say you do something else for a job when asked (rather than say that you are a police officer or working with the police) if you are off duty?
Case Studies
- You are at a wedding, or at a public gathering with your family. It can be exhausting sometimes explaining what you do and answering questions. Do you lie?
- You are at a comedy night where you just want to relax and enjoy yourself when the comedian focuses on you and asks what you do for a living. What do you answer?
Discussion
“It can be exhausting being a police officer, even off duty. You don’t want to talk about work all the time, so its really hard at social events – weddings etc – when people ask.”
vs.
You have chosen this as a career, and taken the oath, so is it appropriate to be economical with the truth?
vs.
You have chosen this as a career, and taken the oath, so is it appropriate to be economical with the truth?
- There is always a risk that you may later be required to identify yourself as a police officer if something happens. This could mean your earlier “white lie” suddenly becomes an issue.
- If you say you work for the police, but could really do with the evening away from thinking about work, perhaps you can politely make it clear that you would rather talk about something else?
- Clearly, if you are involved in undercover work, such conversations could compromise your ability to do your job.
- In some situations, identifying yourself as a police officer or police employee could actually pose a risk for yourself or your family. There are 3rd parties who would be very interested in knowing where you lived or where your children go to school. Clearly, discretion about what you say and where you say it is an important consideration and that is not contradictory to the idea that you have chosen this profession.
- “I’m a civil servant” can work quite well if picked on by a comedian etc, but you also need to apply some professional judgement of the type of places you are going to (or at least not sitting in the front row if you don’t want to end up having to be economical with the truth).
- However, whether you choose to declare your profession, or not, the expectations regarding the standards of professional behaviour exist regardless. Getting ‘bored’ of explaining you are a cop is probably not the most defendable reason to lie in public about what you do. However, there is no standing expectation that if you are asked ‘what you do’ you need to be fully exposing of your role and everything that goes along with that.