NCJ Number
132199
Journal
Prosecutor Volume: 24 Issue: 4 Dated: (Spring 1991) Pages: 23-26
Date Published
1991
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This discussion emphasizes the need for law enforcement administrators to establish and maintain several areas of strict control, and it outlines the steps to establishing a criminal informant program.
Abstract
Administrative controls necessary to operate an effective criminal informant program include: protecting an informant's identity, ensuring information is recorded in files, both disseminating information to appropriate personnel and guarding the information from general perusal, involving mid-level managers in overseeing informant operations, employing alternate informant handlers, and developing strict payment procedures. The use of criminal informants is cost-effective as informants provide intelligence, insight, and information that lead to arrests and convictions and allow a law enforcement agency to expend its personnel on activities that offer a high likelihood of success. 4 footnotes