Here is a story about the murder of a confidential informant in Florida. While there are limited facts available here it will be interesting to follow this story and see if there are any parallels with the murder of Rachael Hoffman in Tallahassee a number of years ago. This led to the introduction of Rachael’s law which was intended to place a much greater obligation on law enforcement to protect informants.
Confidential Informant - Poor management and how to fix it.
Here are two stories around things going badly wrong in regard to confidential informant management.
One from Siloam Springs and one from Los Alamos
Have a read at the stories and check out what happened. Now look at your own department and ask your self “How could this happen in our department? “ If your answer is ‘It couldn’t ‘ you might want to look again. We all like to think we have systems and procedures that stop these types of incident from occurring. Yet, if you are a regular reader of this blog you will see they do time and time again.
Informant sues for $ 10 million
Many law enforcement agencies are quite happy to sign up confidential informants with no real consideration given to the risks they are running.
Here is a case from Alabama where a Sheriffs department is being sued for $10 million
Drug informant shot 15 times sues Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
It will be interesting to see how this pans out and how much if anything is paid out.
Poor informant management - on so many levels
Here is an article about confidential informant management in Orange County, California. There have been problems here for a number of years and the fallout continues.
There is so much wrong here with regard to the evidence the officer provides I am not quite sure where to start. However, assuming the officer is being honest it indicates a system that was totally dysfunctional.
'Informants used to help free hostages' - The benefits of using human sources
A good news story from Nigeria about the release of hostages. Interestingly in the story is the point they make about using informants to get intelligence about the criminal gangs. Using confidential informants (HUMINT, Human Sources, CHIS) has become very much the poor cousin of intelligence collection. Many have consigned it to the too difficult to do tray in favour of OSINT collection. The reality is that if informants are managed properly the amount and quality of intelligence they produce cannot be surpassed.
Confidential Informant Management - Police Chiefs, don't be afraid to ask for help
Here is a story from the Daily Raleigh News concerns alleged corruption involving a detective from the Raleigh Police Department in North Carolina and a confidential informant. This blog discusses the assistance that can be provided to Police Chiefs to avoid similar issues around corruption and confidential informant management.
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 .
What makes a confidential informant manager trustworthy - HUMINT Skills
Here are a number of traits that anyone involved in managing confidential informants (Human source, HUMINT, Covert Human Intelligence Source, CHIS) should have. A source should always find that the officer responsible for their safety(the Handler) is trustworthy. If someone is going to be a competent source Handler then these are the elements supervisor’s should look for.
HUMINT Books for Law Enforcement and Military
TWO Books that provide the know how for successfully managing HUMINT operations. A comprehensive guide to the structures needed and the psychology involved. Will be of interest to HUMINT collectors and detectives managing confidential informants. These HUMINT books for military and law enforcement uniquely prepare police agencies and intelligence officers to conduct effective HUMINT operations in any country.
HUMINT and Managing Confidential Informants - knowing the difference.
It is far from unusual to come across law enforcement agencies where the term HUMINT is used, or to come across law enforcement officers who talk about having attended HUMINT training or that they are involved in HUMINT activities. Here,we will discuss to concepts HUMINT and Human Source Management (aka informant management) and identify some of the differences in the two disciplines.
Confidential Informants Review of Houston Police Narcotics Unit
Confidential Informants: Record keeping Free list
It seems that no matter how many times things go wrong with confidential informants, many law enforcement agencies fail to change their behaviour. Whether this is caused by a lack of either knowledge or willful blindness is hard to say but in the case, it is the former there are three key elements to manage confidential informants safely