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) 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 managing confidential informants is a big problem and it is not going away.
Confidential Informant corruption. Patterns of behavior and Prevention
Here are two stories about alleged corruption involving confidential informants, one in Pennsylvania and one in Kentucky Both questions beg the question as to who was supervising these officers? This article explores patterns of behavior in informant management that lead to corruption and suggests ways to prevent it. Will be of interest to anyone involved in a drugs task force.
Confidential Informants - A gateway to corruption
This article discusses alleged police corruption in the management of confidential informants. (CHIS, Human Sources, HUMINT) It asks a number pf pertinent questions and discussed how a police department may leave an officer vulnerable to corruption. As the article shows informant management is a a high risk business. Officers are at significant risk of being led into a corrupt relationship if they are not trained and supervised properly.
Avoiding confidential informant related corruption.
There have been serious allegations of corruption in Detroit Police Department involving a narcotics unit and the mismanagement of confidential informant finances. There are always risks when it comes to managing confidential informants (HUMINT, Human Sources, Covert Human Intelligence Sources) This article discusses some of the ways to manage these risks.
Poor Risk Management of Confidential Informants
Sexual Misconduct with an informant
Interesting story about an officers inappropriate sexual relationship with an informant ("human source", "confidential informant", "covert human intelligence source")
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/01/26/sex-harassment-settlement-minnesota-bca-informant
As always in these cases it is good to ask a few pertinent questions about the management of confidential informants and hopefully the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is asking itself how this situation occurred.
- What are the agency rules and regulations about contact with informants and how are contacts reported?
- Was there only one officer managing this informant?
- What supervision was there and what went wrong with it?
- What training did the officers involved have for this highly specialised role?
- What changes can the agency make to reduce the chances of this happening again?
It is easy to cast all the blame on one "bad apple" but if one wants to eradicate this type of behaviour one needs a full independent audit of what went wrong and not one carried out by people with a vested interest in sweeping the issue under the rug.
Three things will help prevent this sort of event:
- Comprehensive policy and procedures for officers involved in managing informants
- Only trained officers involved to manage informants and those officers being properly trained.
- Good IT to record and manage all the records.
If you want to know more get in touch we provide audits and training. And we are significantly cheaper than $110,000!
