Man Arrested for False Police Reports

There’s a naked man with a gun and a bomb in a dumpster — at least that’s what a young man from Boynton Beach called to report to police.

Our Palm Beach and Broward County criminal defense lawyers at the Law Offices of Leifert & Leifert know that making false police reports is a serious crime; not only is it illegal and taken seriously in the court of law, but it is not a victimless offense, as we will discuss in this blog.

This story, of a man reporting fake crimes as a way to alleviate boredom, should serve as a reminder that making false reports to the police, whether by way of making false statements on a police report or actually dialing in to 911 to report a made-up crime, is a serious offense — one that can lead to the existence of a real police issue: your arrest and prosecution.

As we noted above, the crime of reporting a fake crime, whether you do so out of boredom, spite, jealousy, etc., is not a victimless one. When you tell law enforcement officers about a crime being committed and give a description of an individual committing the made-up crime, you now make everyone in the immediate area who fits the description vulnerable to police questioning, interrogation and harassment.

In addition to making countless innocent individuals appear to be potential suspects in the eyes of law enforcement officers working off of your fake tip, reporting a face crime also has the effect of lessening the police department’s ability to handle actual criminal activity. Our Palm Beach and Broward County criminal defense lawyers know that if police officers are out searching for someone committing a crime that, in reality, wasn’t happening, they are unable to focus on crimes that truly are being committed; in that sense, by reporting a fake crime and diverting the attention of law enforcement, you’re assisting criminals by weakening the force that serves to prevent criminal activity.

Now, as we also know, there is a big difference between reporting a fake crime and falsely reporting a crime that you believed was real; the issue at the core of the difference is honesty. By knowingly reporting fake crimes, you are making a conscious decision to deceive the police department; by filing a police report that happens to have false information on it — information that you believed to be true — you are not committing a crime.

If you have any questions about reporting fake crimes or filing false criminal reports, please contact our experienced Palm Beach and Broward County criminal defense lawyers at the Law Offices of Leifert & Leifert by calling 1-888-5-DEFEND (1-888-533-3363). We look forward to hearing from you!