Over the years, the cultural and social traits of the police institution have become an important field of sociological enquiry. One specific aspect of this field regards the formal and informal processes by which the recruits acquire and integrate these traits (Monjardet, Gorgeon, 1992, 1993, 1996, and 1999; Chan, 2003; Fielding, 1988; Van Maanen, 1977, 1974, 1973; McNamara, 1967 ). Another important field of research in the sociology of the police institution is related to the delicate aspects of ethics and how the general principles of ethics are translated and adapted in everyday police work (Klockars et al., 2004; Kappeler et al., 1998). This paper joins these two efforts in order to understand how these transformations are experienced by a sample of police recruits in Quebec. This paper is based on a longitudinal data set of answers given by 316 recruits that have volunteered to a five-year follow-up study, using a questionnaire largely based on the one previously designed by Monjardet and Gorgeon in the French context. This paper discusses attitudes of deception, disillusion, and what we consider to be an “ethical softening” experienced by the subjects as they go into their fourth year as police officers. This paper argues that without specific consideration for these phenomena by the police officials, the fracture between the public and the police may get wider. It also argues that another fracture may widen: between younger officers and senior officers.