Honesty is always the best policy” is a time-honored maxim that children have been plied with for generations. While it’s a good general rule, life can often be a bit more complicated than the well-meaning folks who told us that intended. This can be attested to by anyone who has ever told their boss their true opinion.

The criminal justice system tends to take a pretty high view of the concept, too. Officers who are proven to be untrustworthy are often placed on a “Brady/Giglio” list that prosecutors must provide to defense attorneys. Inclusion on this record is often the death knell of a law enforcement career. One glaring exception of the prohibition against fibbing has always been what Seattle, Washington, calls a “ruse.” The courts have long held that there is no constitutional prohibition against law enforcement officers lying to a suspect in an interview.   

Readers unfamiliar with the concept are referred to any of the television police procedurals of the last several decades. A ruse would take place when the grizzled detective tells a suspect that his buddy is in the next room, ratting him out (while the detective’s partner is telling the buddy the same thing). 

In October 2023, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced that the Seattle Police Department was implementing a policy that governed the use of ruses. Under the new policy, officers are limited in using ruses. Supervisor approval must be obtained to use a ruse, and ruses can’t be broadcast over social media. The various rules included in the new policy were developed in cooperative discussions between “accountability experts” and law enforcement stakeholders. The formulation of the policy was overseen by the city’s Office of Accountability for Public Services, which is charged with civilian oversight of police policies and practices. 

According to Fox News, the policy stems, in part, from several high-profile incidents in which ruses went awry. In 2020, while police were dealing with Capitol Hill protesters who essentially claimed part of the city for themselves, a radio broadcast was made that falsely claimed that members of a right-wing men’s group were gathering nearby. The dispatch caused panic among protesters. In 2018, an officer investigating a hit-and-run told one of the suspect’s friends that a woman had been critically injured in an attempt to get the suspect to turn himself in. There were, in fact, no serious injuries, but the suspect committed suicide when he became concerned that he’d killed someone.

While the policy, on its face, appears to be fairly common sense, it’s difficult to know how it will be received by the Seattle Police Department. The department has been subject to various trials and tribulations over the last several years. During the riots and anti-police sentiment that swept the nation in 2020, Seattle officers bore a good part of the brunt. The city government signaled its disdain for the police when it voted to cut law enforcement’s budget that same year. 

Seattle seems to have somewhat reversed course, recently voting for huge pay raises for the boys and girls in blue. Still, police administrators are left with the unenviable task of selling needed reform policies to officers who have every reason to distrust the city government.