Confidential Informant corruption - A gift that keeps on giving
So here we have a few recent news articles relating to police corruption and the management of confidential informants (HUMINT, confidential human sources, covert human intelligence sources, CHIS):
https://www.wfmj.com/story/44166326/judge-threatens-to-toss-dea-agents-plea-in-corruption-case
Please tell me that you realise this is a problem for law enforcement and not just a problem with “one bad officer”. Corruption relating to confidential informants is a big problem and it is not going away.
Every case here is avoidable. Every agency here needs to recognise that the policies, processes, and systems that they had in place to manage confidential informants were not fit for purpose. Risks were not identified and/or not managed. And every other agency needs to take a long hard look at what went wrong in these cases and think about how it might happen in their agency.
At HSM we study cases like these. We study agencies that do things well and that do things badly and everything in between. We learn and we share that information. It is how we make sure that our customers have the knowledge they need and that their officers get the training they need. It is why we are the best at what we do. We are here to help. We support law enforcement, and we are fervent supporters of using confidential informants to assist law enforcement. We will advocate for the use of informants in any forum. However…
We recognise that managing informants is a high-risk business. Our research shows the type and the extent of training that officers need to perform these duties (and it is not two hours online). We have written policies and procedures that will protect the agency, the informant, the officer, and the public. We know the importance of having detail in these documents, (and we are not talking about a few pages.) We know the software that well help in the process. We helped develop it.
We realise that many Police Chiefs are detached from the reality of what goes on day-to-day with operational policing. They may have limited experience of managing informants and assume that it is a job any officer can do. They may have been told that the agency has in place all the rules that are needed. It would be a safe bet that all the Chiefs in the aforementioned organisations thought the same.
If you are reading this article then it is also a reasonable bet that you have the interest in improving how things are done, in your own agency. It falls to you then to raise your concerns with your Chief. No one else will probably do it. There is no need for you to do this alone when we are here to help. Get in touch. Email info@hsmtraining.com or lift the phone +44 7739370969 . We can have a frank discussion about issues you perceive there are and we will help you as best we can. It is our job, but it is also our passion. We don’t like highlighting this type of problem, but we do so as a critical friend so that others can learn. And if we have mentioned your agency here, then if your Chief asks, we will provide you some free training for your officers.
In the meantime, read our books: ‘Human Sources: Managing Confidential Sources’ and ‘Invest Now or Pay Later: Managing risk in covert law enforcement.’ We wrote them for you. They are a good start.