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Narcotics, confidential informants and corruptions.

John Buckley

Another interesting story around narcotics, confidential informants and police corruption:

This is a very interesting case and well worth watching Chief James Craig Detroit Police discuss it. While not going into the specifics of the ongoing investigation or the Chief’s comments, there are a few things that all police chiefs need to know about managing confidential informants and the risks involved.

  1. If informants aren’t managed properly, corruption will happen and in many different ways..

  2. Managing confidential informants is a high-risk activity. It can only be carried out bu officers who have been selected and trained for the role. (Basic training 70 hours - yes 70hours not 7. Not a one day course and not an online course.

  3. There needs to be a purpose-built IT system to manage informants, not some ad-hoc solution thrown together by the IT department.

  4. There need to be comprehensive procedures for the management of informants and the managing of the information gained from those informants. This must connect seamlessly with the systems in place to manage intelligence.

  5. Those managing informants should not be involved in utilizing the information gained from them. Handling should be carried out by officers dedicated to that role.

  6. The information gained from informants should be passed to a centralized collection point where it can be processed into intelligence and then disseminated for use by investigators.

These are just a few of the basics. At HSM Training and Consultancy we provide solutions. We can make put in place systems where it is highly unlikely that corruption will occur and if it does it will be readily identified. We can provide the training needed for officers of all ranks involved in managing informants and managing intelligence. And we can audit your current systems to tell you where the issues are hopefully before things go wrong. Let us help you now before the bad stuff happens. Drop us a note or give us a call.

And if you happen to be in Detroit we will do a full audit for free!