Here is another case of an officer being charged following an inappropriate relationship with an informant in Oconee County, South Carolina.
It is far from unusual. While agencies place their officers in these situations there will always be risks and this is a risk that materialises far too often. Managing confidential informants (human Sources, covert human intelligence sources, CHIS) is a business that is fraught with risks.
Most times it is a failure in the agency’s systems for managing informants that allows such a relationship to begin and develop. I have no doubt most Chiefs /Sheriffs believe that they are doing things well but when was the last time their systems had any independent and expert review. It is easy to cast the sole blame on the officer involved but that is a very naive attitude.
These are common faults:
Poor selection of officers to manage confidential informants. Not every officer has the skills and aptitude to manage informants. Effective selection processes for the role help identify unsuitable officers.
Lack of proper training - how much training in managing informants did the officers involved have? The most basic training takes a minimum of 40 hours. Supervisors need to attend the training to.
Lack of intrusive supervision. Supervisors need to have oversight of every contact an officer makes with a confidential informant.
Lack of proper record keeping. Records must be kept of every contact with an informant and these must be subject to regular audit.
There must always be an officer present who is the same gender as the confidential informant. Let’s be open about this. What are the chances of a female officer being party to sending d*ck pics to an informant?
These are simple basics yet many agencies allow untrained staff to manage informants with little or no training and all but token supervision.
In law enforcement everyone expects there to be high standards of professionalism, accountability, and trust. Behavior like this damages the reputation of the agency.
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