‘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
