It is a known fact that a police officer or a deceive is not allowed to trick people into performing a crime they would not normally do and arresting them for it. Because these scenarios do happen from time to time, it is not uncommon to hear people refer to this act as police entrapment. Tampa residents might not be aware of what it takes to break the law through entrapment and also through legal deception. It is not illegal for a police officer to deceive someone if the circumstances are right, professionals have to be very careful with this. Most people think that if an undercover cop tells someone they are not a cop, and then they perform a criminal act on them, that this is entrapment, but this is not true.

What is Entrapment?

One of the most common areas that sees entrapment cases are drug related crimes. In many situations, it may be hard to tie one individual to a crime, but based on an assumption or other outside information, they set up a scenario to catch an individual in the act. This by itself is not Entrapment. Tampa residents should be aware that would make this scenario entrapment is if the police plant drugs or other substances at a scene, or they misidentify one of the substances as another illegal substance.

What is Legal Deception?

There is nothing wrong with the police tricking someone into saying or doing something they would normally not do, but police officers have to be careful how they go about doing this. With Entrapment, Tampa police officers would not be able to force or coerce someone into giving a false confession. The most common way police officers use legal deception is by expressing false sympathy or understanding, or lying about forensic evidence or an eyewitness testimony.

*Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Butash Law Group*