Abstract
Some courts have said it is, per se, unreasonable to deploy an untested informant and an untested informant is, per se, unreliable and is not credible. Establishing a confidential informant’s (CI) reliability before they are deployed is paramount, but the courts have not provided strong guidance in this area, except to say that reliability is best achieved by independently corroborating the information that was delivered. In addition to establishing veracity, it is important to establish why someone becomes an informant; a person’s motivation for becoming an informant is key to managing risk, including the rationalizations a CI or police officer may proffer when they operate outside the bounds of prescribed policy. Part of managing risk includes defining who is and who is not a CI, detecting when an informant is lying, and developing a written informant policy that is consistent with relevant professional standards. In addition, testing an informant’s integrity before they are deployed is a better method for establishing veracity, reliability, and managing risk than relying on a paper-based background investigation and oral interview. The theoretical framework for integrity testing and its application to informants is well established. Integrity testing is widely used in government and business to determine whether employees can function as expected in their work environment; in the CI realm, this includes avoiding entrapment, avoiding independent criminal behavior, and remaining ethical and forthright throughout an investigation, something untested informants do not possess before they are released to work.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
On August 1, 2008, a grand jury in Tallahassee, FL, found that issues of immaturity contributed to the death of Rachel Morningstar Hoffman on May 7, 2008, who was acting as a CI for the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) during a controlled drug investigation. Given her inexperience with dangerous drug dealers, immaturity, poor planning on behalf of the TPD including lack of supervision, training, faulty equipment, and policy deviations, Hoffman was lured to her death by the targets of the investigation. The grand jury subsequently indicted the offenders for first-degree homicide, armed robbery with a firearm, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and ordered the TPD to immediately take “…corrective action to ensure the safety of the citizens of this county including changes in policy and procedure relating to confidential informants…” (http://archive.tallahassee.com/legacy/grandjury.pdf, retrieved on December 23, 2014).
- 2.
US Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (pp. 53–54) allow the government to reduce the defendant’s previously imposed sentence if, after sentencing, he or she provides substantial assistance in investigating or prosecuting another person.
- 3.
As one example, the incentive to lie is recognized by the state of Nebraska, which defines an “informant” as “any criminal suspect, whether or not he is detained or incarcerated, who received a deal, promise, inducement or benefit” (Nebraska Revised Statutes, 29-1929). The Nebraska legislature reasoned that “there is a compelling state interest in providing safeguards against the admission of testimony the reliability of which may be or has been compromised through improper inducements.”
- 4.
The DSM-IV is an authoritative manual published by the American Psychiatric Association that includes all currently recognized mental health disorders. The DSM-IV is used by mental health professionals to describe the characteristics of a given disorder and to indicate how the disorder is distinguished from other similar conditions.
- 5.
Inadequate police training may provide the basis for § 1983 liability, but only where the failure to train in a relevant respect amounts to “deliberate indifference” to the constitutional rights of persons with whom the police come into contact. The “deliberate indifference” standard is most consistent with the rule of Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 694, that a city is not liable under § 1983 unless a municipal “policy” or “custom” is the moving force behind the constitutional violation. Only where a failure to train reflects a “deliberate” or “conscious” choice by the municipality can the failure be properly thought of as an actionable city “policy.” Monell will not be satisfied by a mere allegation that a training program represents a policy for which the city is responsible. Rather, the focus must be on whether the program is adequate to the tasks the particular employees must perform, and if it is not, on whether such inadequate training can justifiably be said to represent “city policy.” Moreover, the identified deficiency in the training program must be closely related to the ultimate injury. Thus, the respondent must still prove that the deficiency in training actually caused the police officers’ indifference to her medical needs. To adopt lesser standards of fault and causation would open municipalities to unprecedented liability under § 1983; would result in de facto respondeat superior liability, a result rejected in Monell; would engage federal courts in an endless exercise of second-guessing municipal employee-training programs, a task that they are ill suited to undertake; and would implicate serious questions of federalism (City of Canton v. Harris 1989, pp. 388–392). Retrieved from http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=489&invol=378 on April 12, 2015.
- 6.
These terms include: active informant, anonymous informant, arrested informant, citizen informant, concerned citizen, confidential cooperating witness, confidential human intelligence source, confidential human source, confidential reliable informant, confidential source, confidential witness, controlled informant, cooperating defendant, cooperating individual, cooperating witness, cooperative individual, cooperator, criminal informant, defendant informant, informal informant, informant defendant, high-level government source, informant, informer, jailhouse informant, juvenile informant, media source, nonparticipating informant, occasional informant, paid informant, participating informant, passive informant, privileged informant, privileged source, regular/constant informant, restricted-use contributor, restricted-use informant, source of information, special informant, senior leadership source, street source, union source, unpaid informant, and unwitting informant.
- 7.
The IACP’s stated mission is to “…advance professional police services; promote enhanced administrative, technical, and operational police practices; foster cooperation and the exchange of information and experience among police leaders and police organizations of recognized professional and technical standing throughout the world. We shall champion the recruitment and training of qualified persons in the police profession and encourage all police personnel worldwide to achieve and maintain the highest standards of ethics, integrity, community interaction and professional conduct.” Retrieved from http://www.theiacp.org/Mission on December 23, 2014.
- 8.
CALEA was created in 1979 as a voluntary credentialing authority through the joint efforts of law enforcement’s major executive associations, the IACP; National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE); National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA); and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). CALEA’s accreditation mission is to improve the delivery of public safety services, primarily by: (1) maintaining a body of standards, developed by public safety practitioners, covering a wide range of up-to-date public safety initiatives; (2) establishing and administering an accreditation process; and (3) recognizing professional excellence (modified from http://www.calea.org/content/commission, retrieved on November 13, 2014).
- 9.
According to the IACP, the National Law Enforcement Policy Center was created in 1987 to “…assist law enforcement agencies across the country in the critical and difficult task of developing and refining law enforcement policy. Organized under the direction of a broad-based advisory board of recognized law enforcement professionals, the center has carried out its mission through the development of a wide variety of model law enforcement policies.”
See http://www.theiacp.org/Model-Policy, retrieved on January 11, 2015.
- 10.
Retrieved from http://www.calea.org/content/accreditation on January 6, 2015.
- 11.
Retrieved on January 20, 2015 from http://www.theiacp.org/Model-Policy.
- 12.
Hidden camera investigations along with mainstream media and popular culture have existed for several decades to some critical acclaim, most notably through television shows such as Candid Camera (WABC 1948), What Would You Do? (WABC 2008), Dateline (WNBC 1992), Taxicab Confessions (HBO 1995), Totally Hidden Video (FOX 1986), and To Catch a Predator (WNBC 2004).
- 13.
Tests conducted by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) of their forensic laboratory personnel are also known as “proficiency tests”; see p. 15 of the Hamann (2007) report.
- 14.
That collective good, profit, and social utility are often replaced by lying, deceitfulness, and individual interests is exemplified by the myriad regulatory functions served by the government such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (to regulate investment trading and to ensure financial markets are not destabilized through fraud and corruption); the US Food and Drug Administration (to regulate food, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices to ensure health and safety); and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (to regulate legal (prescription narcotics) and illegal controlled substances to ensure health and safety).
- 15.
The verse cited here is from the King James version of the holy Bible. Other translations are very similar: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor” (New International Version 2011); “You must not testify falsely against your neighbor” (New Living Translation 2007); “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (New American Standard Bible 1995).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Shane, J. (2016). Literature Review. In: Confidential Informants. SpringerBriefs in Criminology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22252-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22252-3_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-22251-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-22252-3
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)