confidentialinformanttraining

Making up informants

Some people don’t learn . You just can’t make up informants. Here is a story from Smithfield Rhode Island about a 600k lawsuit based on information from an informant .

In essence the officer obtained a warrant based on an informant who no one met.

Confidential informants - what 1.8 million dollars buys!

You could pay a lawsuit like this one £1.8 million because your systems didn’t prevent wrongdoing by your officers. That is a lot of money for any agency to throw away. Read about alternatives.

Confidential informant compromise - Police Negligence.

Here is a story about the compromise of a list of informants names from Nevada’s Record Courier. A worker in the state’s information technology department, was able to open the file containing the names, addresses and even photos of the informants. If informants are being managed properly this should not be possible. It is negligence on the part of the agency managing the informants. We are putting people’s lives in great danger.

Informants destroy police careers

Here is a story of three careers destroyed because of the failure to manage a confidential informant safely. The FBI are the USA’s most prominent law enforcement agency. This case begs the question as to what happened to facilitate the mismanagement of this informant. Be under no illusion this is not just one officer acting badly - it is a failure of systems and processes.

Confidential Informant related corruption - USA

Well here is a different take on a an unfortunately all to common tale of allegations of inappropriate sexual relations between a police officer and a confidential informant. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that allegations of serious corruption relating to informants and Philadelphia police department have come to light. This article discusses options to remove the risk of such allegations/and events.

Human Sources (CHIS) domestic violence and managing risk

An interesting article from the BBC relating to the management of a Covert Human Intelligence Source (CHIS) (confidential informant) and the source’s alleged involvement in domestic violence. This case involves the security service (MI5) and a person they managed as an informant.

Bad Information from a confidential Informant costs $2.9 million.

Many of our readers in the USA will be familiar with the case in Chicago of Anjanette Young, where police executed a warrant on her apartment to search for a gun. Without going into all the details of what was done wrong, it has now cost the City of Chicago $2.9 million in compensation for Ms Young. This was an expensive day out for the Chicago Police Department. We can stop the same thing happening to your agency,

Confidential Informant Management - Drug Enforcement Administration

Sometimes we read a story about poor informant management and we shake our head in disbelief. Here is a story about a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officer gone bad.

Confidential Informant is reliable - Can you prove it?

Confidential informants, human sources, humint, confidential human intelligence sources, CHIS, choose your terminology but the problems in managing people giving information to the police are well known and rarely change. There are ways to manage them these people that protect the person, protect the public, protect the agency, protect the officer, and protect the rule of law. Unfortunately, for some agencies, adopting the necessary measures just seems like something that is too difficult to do .

Dozens of cases dismissed because of confidential informant corruption.

A story from the Chicago Tribune relating to the impact of the misuse of confidential informants. (CHIS, HUMINT, Confidential Human Sources) Two officers were convicted of offences relating to the misuse of informants and now questions have been raised over many of the cases they have been involved in. this article details how to make sure this does not happen in other police departments and gives an indication of the costs involved.

Australian Royal Commission on the management of police informants

Australian Royal Commission on the management of police informants

The report of the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants in Victoria, Australia has been released. This article gives some of the background to the case and addresses some of the main recommendations of the report. The report establishes best practice for all law enforcement agencies in Australia and contains a lot of learning for those outside Australia that are involved in managing informants.

Confidential informant management and corruption

Analysing why agencies wont change their behaviour to manage confidential informants professionally. The article discusses law enforcement corruption linked to managing confidential sources ( human sources, CHIS)