Confidential Informants

While confidential informants (CI's) can play a crucial role in police investigations, they also have the potential to cause great harm if they are dishonest. The process by which police agencies qualify a CI to work and the strength of agency policy may be the source of the problem. This Brief examines the integrity problem involving CIs in police operations within the United States, provides an overview of pitfalls and problems related to veracity and informant integrity including the difficulties in detecting when a CI is lying, and compares the provisions of actual published police policy to the model CI policy published by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). The analysis shows a wide divergence between actual police policy and the national standard promulgated by the IACP.

Preface. - Foreword I Mary Nicol Bowman. - Foreword II Jennifer Bonjean. - Foreword III Karen L. Amendola. - Introduction. - Background and the Problems Surrounding Confidential Informants. - Literature Review. - Methodology. - Analysis and Findings. -Discussion. - Policy Implications. - Limitations. - Directions for Future Research. - Afterword James M. Doyle.