On the need for police officers to read more.
Records management - Backing up police records.
Here is a story from Minneapolis about the destruction of police records some of them pertaining to confidential informants. In one case the records were destroyed by police and in the other as a result of public disorder.
Undercover operations - Records and accountability and potential corruption
“Cops bought booze, lap dances during undercover strip club probe…” makes for an interesting headline in the New York Post but the whole story raises a lot of questions for the police department involved. More importantly it creates a learning opportunity for other law enforcement agencies when it comes to accountability and record keeping in undercover operations.
No Knock Warrants and questionable confidential informants
No knock warrants are a tactic available to police that has be subject to much scrutiny. Here is a story from St Louis which resulted in the death of a 63 year old man. No knock warrants are intended to be used where there is a greater risk to the officers executing the warrant. This article focuses on the involvement of confidential informants in obtaining the warrant.
Informants, alleged corruption and systemic failures.
A report on a case we are following closely from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, about the trial of a former police officer and his relationship with a number of confidential informants. Allegations of consensual sexual relationships, rape and the supply of heroin to an informant are all in there. While the accused guilt of innocence is, for our purposes, academic, the allegations point to a systemic failure to manage informants safely.
Confidential Informant corruption - A gift that keeps on giving
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.
Verinote - An App to help in managing confidential informants
This article discusses the use of the VeriNote app and its utility in confidential informant management. There are a lot of features about this product that make it ideal for officers involved in managing confidential sources (HUMINT, covert human intelligence sources, CHIS, and confidential human sources). Here we list some of the features that will make it very appealing to anyone involved in this type of work.
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 .
Using Information from Confidential Informants - Lawsuit
There is little point in collecting information from a confidential informant if the police can’t use it. How to use it in a way that is lawful and defendable is problematic for some agencies. The consequences of getting wrong are well documented and have resulted in deaths and lawsuits. This article discusses one such lawsuit and provides details of how to build a system to make sure everything is done lawfully and ethically. The article also addresses what needs to be done to ensure that informant information is used properly in obtaining warrants.