What makes a confidential informant credible?

‘What makes a confidential informant credible/’ may seem like an easy question to answer but it is not. First, we need to understand what credible actually means in legal terms. Second, we have to realise who is making the judgement about credibility. Third, we have to understand what information can be used to make an informed decision with regard to credibility.

When it comes to meaning if we look to the dictionary it gives: ‘Someone who's credible is honest and believable.’ This is little help because few people are honest all the time, and while we may be speaking the truth, the way we speak that truth means that we won’t be believed. Defining credible and credibility is not that simple.

Who must be convinced with regard to credibility: first the officer receiving the information but how many of those officers realise that how difficult it is for them to be objective about what they are being told. How many of them know anything about cognitive biases that distort are decision making? How many managers that are deploying resources based on information from an informant understand what makes information credible. And when it comes to a court deciding if an informant is credible… in many cases they merely take the word of an untrained officer.

Deciding if an informant’s information is credible requires the adoption of a systematic approach to processing the information with built in checks and balances to test it at every stage. And just because information from an informant is credible one time does not make the informant credible all the time.

This is just a teaser for how officers need to think about credibility when it comes to managing an informant. Ant this is why they need to be properly trained - not a one day seminar. Managing informants requires specialised training. If they have not had it and if the training does not cover this topic in detail one should always be doubtful about using any information they get from a confidential informant.

If you have any queries about this please get in touch. Or take a look at our publication: https://www.amazon.com/Managing-Intelligence-Guide-Enforcement-Professionals/dp/1466586427

Problems with confidential informants

There has been a lot of reporting recently about law enforcement agencies having problems managing confidential informants. Regardless of how you refer to people who confidentially pass information to law enforcement.managing them is often problematic. There are numerous terms that are often used: Covert human intelligence sources (CHIS), the UK legal term, Human sources, used by FBI and widely in Canada and across Australia. and HUMINT often used within military circles. Having a clear definition of what constitutes an informant and what the parameters of their role is are critical elements in managing these individuals effectively. A lot of law enforcement officers believe that anyone can manage informants which is also one of the reasons that an agency gets into trouble around informant management. And unfortunately when something goes wrong the default setting for many is to blame an individual rather than looking at the system that created the circumstances where the bad things happened. The vast majority of things that go wrong with managing informants are down to how the agency manages the informant and the systems that are in place. Most of the time it is an officer being scapegoated. Undoubtedly there are officers who have been involved in wrongdoing but when one drills down into the case it is the informant management system within the agency that has condone the activity or not prevented the wrong doing.

Fortunately, there is a lot an agency can do to mange risks around informant management. At HSM Training and Consultancy we have the knowledge and skills to identify the problems you may have within your agency and advise with regard to steps that need to be taken to protect the agency, the public and the informant. In many cases we can help minimise the impact where something bad has already happened. We are professionals. We know informant management inside out. We literally wrote the book!

So regardless of the size of your agency get in touch and we can have a chat about how we can help you. We work with both big and small agencies. And we want what is right for you. Its not an one size fits all solution. And if you need expert testimony about what is good and bad practice with regard to managing informants we can provide that