re: Why are detectives and police allowed to lie to suspects but flipped is illegal?

CB, if the government was only interested in enforcing the classics (murder, rape, theft) then I'm with you.

The trouble is, we have a myriad of uncountable and unknown "gotcha" laws that people violate every day without even knowing it.

Sure, if I didn't kill anyone I would be happy to talk, if killing was the only issue being addressed.

But now I have to be concerned that I let you, a good friend, have one of my Valiums the other day when you were stressed out.

Or that I transported a water hyacinth plant unknowingly on my boat.

Or that I plowed a field that I have been farming for generations before getting a permit.

Oh, and the tax code. It is stacked floor to ceiling and no one knows everything in it.
It's a virtual certainly that everyone has violated at least one provision of it.