WSNIA - The Educator

INFORMATION ♦ EDUCATION ♦ ENFORCEMENT

THE EDUCATOR - Winter 2004

Mommy, Where Do Informants Come From?

By Brett Shavers

Informant use in law enforcement is one of the most effective tools in nearly any investigation. This article addresses the RECRUITMENT and DEVELOPMENT of confidential informants.

I have often been asked, ‘Where do you get all your informants?’. The answer to the question is, ‘Informants are everywhere, and you just have to look at people a little differently to find them’. To effectively recruit informants, investigators need to know where to find them in the first place and then have a system of building rapport and trust over a period of time, whether the time period is minutes, days, or even longer.

Traditionally, narcotic investigators find their informants in patrol related arrests, in that uniformed officer makes an arrest stemming from a traffic stop which led to the discovery of drugs in the vehicle (as a typical example). Instead of facing criminal charges, or in return for lesser charges, this new informant chooses to work off the charges. Depending upon the number of arrests your agency makes a year, you may either have a plethora of informants, very few, or a year of feast or famine. Either way, you have no control of the quality or quantity of informants if you rely solely on patrol generated arrests.

Walk-ins are a curious source of informants if only for the sake of wondering why a person would volunteer to be an informant for a drug investigation. However, if you can determine the motivation, at least the person has shown the desire by making the first step. Again, this is a source of informants that investigators have no control over and you never know if the walk-in just wanted to see the local Narc detectives and give phony information as a ploy.

Another source of informants are the local jails. A short visit can yield great results. Inmates that will be released soon can be interviewed at your leisure. A promise of working as a paid informant can be a motivator to someone that doesn’t have employment upon release from jail. Rapport building can be made during the interviews and if signed up while in the jail, your new informant can start making cases even before being released. The investigator has total control of the recruitment process with this method.

Anonymous phone calls are valuable for several reasons. One, the information is free, and two, you have the opportunity to hone your interview skills on a cold call. Many times, the caller will tell their motivation to you (revenge, anger, etc.) as well as give you details of the drug trafficker they wish to ‘turn in’. This is your opportunity to hone your verbal skills and convince your anonymous caller to become an active participant in a drug investigation as an informant. You have nothing to lose and an informant to gain, If you explain the hardships to your caller of investigating an anonymous tip without assistance, you may be able to gain cooperation as an informant. It’s worth a try and there is nothing to lose.

The good narcotic investigator can find information anywhere. The great narcotic investigators have armies of salespersons finding information for them. This army consists of federal agents, troopers, patrol officers, and general detectives. By becoming a salesperson and telling others what you are looking for in an informant, you will get calls from these people referring informants to you. Federal agents tend to only work large cases and have little time for street level cases. Make a friend with your favorite federal agent to take some of their workload (work one of the little cases for them and refer them a big one). Pass your business card with cell phone listed on it to patrol briefings. A young officer that contacts a potential informant will be happy to call you to refer the new informant to you.

Your long-term informants can be a fantastic source of new informants. Long-term informants know how you work, your personality, and what you look form informants. They also know (better than you) who would be a good informant for you. Take care of your current informants, train them to look for what you want to work with, and expect to have good referrals.

Cold recruitment is often the most difficult method of informant recruiting. Cold recruitment can consist of making a cold call (“Sir, would you like to be an informant for the government?”), which more than likely won’t yield good results. Cold recruitment can also consist of conducting an investigation on a known drug trafficker or an associate of a known drug trafficker. During this investigation, an undercover officer can make contacts at a local hangout or bar and attempt to slowly develop an unwitting informant. In time, a decision can be made to either use this person as an unwitting informant or to eventually offer the opportunity to work as an informant. The investigator has complete control over this method; however, it is extremely labor and time intensive. For the undercover officer, there is the compromise of the undercover identity when the potential informant is offered a role as an informant.

The common method in each of these resources for informants is the ability to talk to people. If you have a disdain for informants, it will come across in your demeanor If you are not honest with informants, they will know it immediately. Informants have dealt with dishonestly, cheating, and manipulation all their lives. You will not be better than the cons that have taken advantage of them, however, your honesty will be evident. You will be surprised at the number of persons that will take an active role as an informant in an investigation when ‘their’ investigator treats them like a human, with respect and honesty.

By having a list of resources of where informants come from coupled with a developed ability to recruit informants, you will never have days of feast and famine. Unfortunately, you also won’t have any more excuses for your Sergeant of never having informants either...You will be able to control your investigations as you control your list of informants. It won’t be long before others are asking you, “How do get so many informants?”

Brett Shavers has worked narcotics for the past 6 years. He has worked several organized crime cases from Canada to California as case detective, undercover officer and informant manager He continues to work in a federal task force investigating international drug trafficking organizations based in Washington State.