The following is a story about a uniformed officer from York Regional Police in Toronto Canada and allegations about corrupt behavior involving the management of confidential informants. As this matter it is currently before the courts we will not go into the specifics of the case. However there are lessons to be learned by everyone involved in the management of confidential informants (CHIS, Confidential Human Sources, HUMINT). This is not a story about a “dirty cop”. It is a story about systemic failure. We will begin by asking a number of questions:
Why was an officer allowed to meet an informant alone and unsupervised?
Managing confidential informants is a covert activity. Why was an uniformed officer doing it?
What training did the officer have before they were allowed to have contact with informants?
What do the agency’s procedures say about meeting informants? Were they adhered to?
Where were the officer’s supervisors/line managers when this was happening?
Who was checking where the officer was getting the information from?
Why was the officer allowed to hand money to an informant with no other officer present?
What records exist pertaining to the informant? Are they all stored on a computerized system? Who is supervising the entries?
Why were the informant meetings not audio recorded? (Assuming that was legally possible.)
How many other informant relationships has that officer been involved in? Are any of those informants connected to subsequent convictions of people? Was their information used to obtain warrants etc?
How many other similar relationships are taking place with officers from the same agency?
How many other agencies are in a similar situation.
Managing confidential Informants is a gateway to corruption, if the proper control measures are not in place to manage the risks. These are three simple measures:
Informants should only be managed by properly trained officers dedicated to that role and adequately supervised.
Agencies need comprehensive procedures that cover EVERY aspect of informant management from beginning to end.
All informant records should be stored on software purposely designed for that purpose.
At HSM Training we publish stories like this to assist the wider law enforcement community. When mistakes are made others need to know so they don’t make the same mistake. If any agency wants help in establishing good informant management practices read it in our book Human Sources: Managing Confidential Informants or give us a call. And if the Police Chief in York wants assistance, get in touch. We will audit your system at no charge for our time. We will establish what changes need to be made to protect you and your agency.
