The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law
Chapter 12: I Was Entrapped!
Entrapment pg 14: Myth #1—A cop has to tell you if he’s a cop
MYTH #1: A cop has to tell you if he’s a cop.
Counsel explaining to Cora
CORA
False. No undercover cop ever has to admit he’s a police officer.
CORA
But everyone knows they have to!
COUNSEL
Well, everybody’s wrong.
It’s amazing that this myth has stuck around so long, when tons of undercover arrests prove it wrong every day.
Cora isn’t convinced.
CORA
I still don’t get it. I’ve heard it a thousand times from kids at school, in movies, on T.V.
Well, maybe it’s not so amazing after all.
Regardless, without deception, the police couldn’t do their job very well.
Cora’s balding, middle-aged undercover
UNDERCOVER
If someone knows I’m a cop, they’re not likely to let me catch them in the act, are they?
[Side note for those who’ve read this far: Busting this myth is literally the reason I started this comic in the first place. It was the first one I mentioned in my blog The Criminal Lawyer, of which this comic is an offshoot. As you’ve noticed, it was more a blog with the occasional picture at first. Turned into a comic without my realizing it. Anyway, this point was the one I had in mind at the outset, first and foremost, ahead of all the myriad other myths and misconceptions that people have about the law that made me realize I could draw this comic until the day I die and still have plenty of material left to cover.]