What is the current state of the law on police tactics in dealing with criminal suspects?

Police officers have a difficult job. Because criminals often rely on falsehoods and deception to avoid detection, we do not require angelic behavior on the part of investigators in ferreting out illegal activity. Generally speaking, there is nothing wrong with the police using trickery or subterfuge to gain a suspect's cooperation or elicit information from him. (People v. Chutan, supra, 72 Cal.App.4th at p. 1280.) Although courts will not countenance police tactics that are so fundamentally unfair as to violate

Page 11