Police perjury: Examining the relationship between social tendency and managerial considerations

Lying and deception by police in their daily activities has been acknowledged, justified and approved by the Courts, police departments and society. The distinction between tolerated or permissible lying and reprehensible perjury in the state of Kansas is described in the Criminal Code. Despite these clear definitions of perjury, in 1994, the Mollen Commission report on corruption in the New York City Police Department rarely used the term perjury. The report did recognize that police practices of falsification were so common that it spawned its own word testilying. Testilying and falsifications are simply euphemisms for perjury. The present paper explored some of the managerial considerations which influence the rationale for police perjury. Examining the relationship between social tendency and managerial considerations assists in prompting an appropriate management style to decrease the propensity to commit perjury within law enforcement.