I was doing some doing some research on the web when I came across this quote “Only members who have completed Department approved training may utilize confidential informants or maintain informant files”. It is taken from Vancouver Police Department’s Informant Management Policy For those of you unaware Vancouver is a big city in Canada - think mountains and sea, with approximately 2000 sworn and unsworn members.
What struck me about the comment was that someone at senior command level is obviously alive to the risks involved in managing confidential informants (confidential human sources) and is proactive in taking steps to minimise the risks involved. Allowing any officer to manage informants creates an unacceptable level of risk to the agency, the officer, the public and the informant. Proper training mitigates most of the risks.
Their policy continues “Officers and Supervisors must pass a Department approved course of instruction regarding informant utilization before working with informants…” Implicit hear is that officers must reach an agreed standard.
For some informant training is an on line course over a few hours, ticking the check box quiz at the end. For others it is a one or two day session with upwards of 40 students listening to a combination of PowerPoint being read interspersed with tall tales of daring do by the the instructor. Both are inadequate for such a high risk area of work.
It takes a week to teach all the about administration involved, everything form identifying risks, court disclosure, contact reports and managing the information produced, If this is not done things have the potential to go badly.
Having gotten the basics out of the way, then we can start to look at the interpersonal aspects of recruiting and managing a confidential informant. A week spent here provides a good grounding. If you want to add in assessments of the officers you have to add in additional hours.
Given the training commitment, one can see why it is impossible to train every officer adequately. It is fortunate then that if an agency has the right structures in place, a very limited number of officers, can manage all the informants that any agency needs.
If you want to discuss your options please feel free to email us on info@hsmtraining.com and we will get straight back to you. We know this business and we understand the problems you may be facing. a chat costs nothing and we think you will be pleasantly surprised at the cost of our bespoke training.
In the meantime have a look at our books on the topic. And Well done VPD.
