Confidential Informant management - hitting the tree

A story from Raleigh, North Carolina about corruption involving a Raleigh police officer and a confidential informant. While the article lacks detail and the investigation is still ongoing, there are a few things we can be fairly sure were wrong.

Managing the insider threat.

One of the joys of working across the globe in this business area is that we get to work with a lot of different companies each of these brings a different aspect of to our knowledge. One such company is Daltrey who produce the Identity Today podcast. There are lots of learning there featuring interviews with industry leaders.

Here is a link to the podcast we did with them on the topic of managing the insider threat.

Confidential Informant and Wrongful convictions - Painful to watch

Poorly managed confidential informants can lead to wrongful convictions. Here is our commentary on the KSAT 12 documentary ‘A Necessary Evil’: The Cost of Confidential Informants,” It makes for painful watching for any law enforcement officer. who knows how to manage confidential informants properly. It provides suggestions as to how to make sure law enforcement agencies have adequate training, systems and software solutions to mage informants properly.

Confidential informants - a high risk business.

Despite significant evidence to the contrary unfortunately, some Police Chiefs think managing confidential informants is a job any of their officers can do. Some fail to recognize the risks involved until it is too late. Just in case you are of a similar mind and can’t see the risks that are ever present, this article provides a few stories to focus the mind about some of the risks that are present.

Interpersonal Skills for Police Officers - A short quiz to get you thinking.

Interpersonal skills training for police officers. A short quiz designed to show readers how questions directed at police can evoke responses that lead to negative behaviors. HSM Training is a company specializing in delivering deliver psychology-based, communication skills training to law enforcement officers.

Confidential Informant Corruption - Canada

Here is a story about informant related corruption and York Regional Police in Toronto, Canada which we have discussed before. A sixteen year veteran was sentence to over seven years in prison, for corruption relating at least in part to the management of confidential informants (HUMINT, confidential human sources, CHIS)

'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.

Bad Information from a confidential Informant costs $2.9 million.

Many of our readers in the USA will be familiar with the case in Chicago of Anjanette Young, where police executed a warrant on her apartment to search for a gun. Without going into all the details of what was done wrong, it has now cost the City of Chicago $2.9 million in compensation for Ms Young. This was an expensive day out for the Chicago Police Department. We can stop the same thing happening to your agency,

Confidential Informant Management - Drug Enforcement Administration

Sometimes we read a story about poor informant management and we shake our head in disbelief. Here is a story about a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officer gone bad.

Confidential informants and police corruption

Here is a story from New Albany, Indiana about a police officer that went well and truly down the wrong road with a confidential informant, (human source, CHIS). This type of think could have happened in many police departments. The case is far from unique. No doubt everyone is seeking to cast all the blame on the officer. Time would be better spent looking at how this behaviour occurred and how it continued for two years.

Proactive Recruitment of Confidential Informants

An article discussing the proactive recruitment of confidential informants (Human sources, HUMINT) by low and county police departments in the USA.

Confidential Informant Case Law USA

At HSM Consultancy and Training we are always looking for material that helps our customers and the wider law enforcement community have a better understanding of every aspect of managing confidential informants. This article links to a discussion of the Luttenberger Standard and its application to disclosure and confidential informants.

Police Corruption and Informants - Simply no valid excuse.

There is simply no valid excuse in 2021, for officers mishandling confidential informants (HUMINT, confidential human sources, Covert human intelligence sources, CHIS). While there is always a risk that one officer becomes involved in corrupt behavior systems should be in place where such behavior is very difficult to carry out and if it is done it can be readily detected and easily proven.