Abstract
Undercover policing carries a tremendous responsibility for interdicting crime and political violence by preventive infiltration of criminal organizations to disrupt their operations and bring their perpetrators to justice. As much of this process involves the skillful manipulation of human relationships, psychology has a vital role to play in all major phases of undercover work. This article will describe the role of psychological services in team formation, selection and training of undercover officers (UCOs), preparation for undercover operations, deployment and monitoring, termination and reintegration, and managing deployment stress and post-operation psychological syndromes.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
References
Anderson, W., Swenson, D., & Clay, D. (1995).Stress management for law enforcement officers. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Band, S.R., & Sheehan, D.C. (1999). Managing undercover stress: The supervisor’s role.FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, February, p. 1–6
Barefoot, J. (1975).Undercover investigation. Springfield: Thomas.
Blau, T.H. (1994).Psychological services for law enforcement. New York: Wiley.
Bolz, F., Dudonis, K.J., & Schultz, D.P. (1996).The counter-terrorism handbook. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Buckwalter, A. (1983).Surveillance and undercover investigation. Boston: Butterworth.
Cheek, J.C. & Lesce, T. (1988).Plainclothes and off-duty officer survival. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas.
Cloninger, R. (1987). A systematic method for clinical description and classification of personality variants.Archives of General Psychiatry, 44, 573–588.
Farkas, G.M. (1986). Stress in undecover policing. In J.T. Reese & H. Goldstein (Eds.),Psychological services for law enforcement (pp. 433–440). Washington DC: US Government Printing Office.
Geller, W.A. (1993). Put friendly-fire shooting in perspective.Law Enforcement News, 18, 9.
Girodo, M. (1985). Health and legal issues in undercover narcotics investigations: Misrep-resented evidence.Behavioral Sciences and the Law 3, 299–308.
Girodo, M. (1991a). Symptomatic reactions to undercover work.Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 179, 626–630.
Girodo, M. (1991b). Personality, job stress, and mental health in undercover agents.Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 6, 375–390.
Girodo, M. (1991c). Drug corruption in undercover agents: Measuring the risk.Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 9, 361–370.
Grant, J.D., & Grant, J. (1996). Officer selection and the prevention of abuse of force. In W.A. Geller & H. Toch (Eds.),Police Violence: Understanding and controlling police abuse of force (pp. 150–164). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Greenstone, J.L. (2005).The elements of police hostage and crisis negotiations: Critical incidents and how to respond to them. New York: Haworth Press.
Hibler, N.S. (1995). The care and feeding of undercover agents. In M.L. Kurke & E.M. Scrivner (Eds.),Police psychology into the 21 st century (pp. 299–317). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.
MacLeod, A.D. (1995). Undercover policing: A psychiatrist’s perspective.International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 18, 239–247.
Marx, G.T. (1988).Undercover: Police surveillance in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
McMains, M.J., & Mullins, W.C. (1996).Crisis negotiations: Managing critical incidents and situations in law enforcement and corrections. Cincinnati: Anderson.
Miller, L. (1990).Inner natures: Brain, self and personality. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Miller, L. (1995). Tough guys: Psychotherapeutic strategies with law enforcement and emergency services personnel.Psychotherapy, 32, 592–600.
Miller, L. (1998).Shocks to the system: Psychotherapy of traumatic disability syndromes. New York: Norton.
Miller, L. (1999a). Critical incident stress debriefing: Clinical applications and new directions.International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, 1, 253–265.
Miller, L. (1999b). Psychotherapeutic intervention strategies with law enforcement and emergency services personnel. In L. Territo & J.D. Sewell (Eds.),Stress management in law enforcement (pp. 317–332). Durham: Carolina Academic Press.
Miller, L. (2000). Law enforcement traumatic stress: Clinical syndromes and intervention strategies.Trauma Response, 6(1), 15–20.
Miller, L. (2003). Police personalities: Understanding and managing the problem officer.The Police Chief, May, pp. 53–60.
Miller, L. (2004). Good cop—bad cop: Problem officers, law enforcement culture, and strategies for success.Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 19, 30–48.
Miller, L. (2005). Hostage negotiation: Psychological principles and practices.International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, 7, 277–298.
Miller, L. (2006).Practical police psychology: Stress management and crisis intervention for law enforcement. Springfield: Charles C Thomas.
Miller, L. (in press). On the spot: Testifying in court for law enforcement officers.FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin.
Millon, T., & Davis, R. (1996).Disorders of personality: DSM-IV and beyond. New York: Wiley.
Millon, T., & Davis, R. (2000).Personality disorders in modern life. New York: Wiley.
Mitchell, J.T., & Everly, G.S. (1996).Critical incident stress debriefing: An operations manual for the prevention of traumatic stress among emergency services and disaster workers (rev. ed.). Ellicott City: Chevron.
Russell, H.E., & Beigel, A. (1990).Understanding human behavior for effective police work (3rd ed.). New York: Basic Books.
Scrivner, E.M. (1999). Controlling police use of excessive force: The role of the police psychologist. In L. Territo & J.D. Sewell (Eds.),Stress management in law enforcement (pp. 383–391). Durham: Carolina Academic Press.
Smith, B.L. (1994).Terrorism in America: Pipe bombs and pipe dreams. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Twersky-Glasner, A. (2005). Police personality: What is it and why are they like that?Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 20, 56–67.
Zuckerman, M. (1991).Psychobiology of personality. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Miller, L. Undercover policing: A psychological and operational guide. J Police Crim Psych 21, 1–24 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02855681
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02855681