Snitching

Criminal Informant Law, Policy, and Research

Police

Former police chief and prosecutor on the dangers of snitching in USA Today

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Here is an important op-ed in USA Today from Miriam Krinsky and Ronal Serpas: “Stop letting prosecutors get away with threatening murder.” They chronicle the misuse of informants by law enforcment in Orange County and across the country.  About Orange Country, they write:

“Prosecutors used informants to do what would have been illegal for them to do directly — question individuals awaiting trial without their lawyer present and, even worse, use threats of murder and violence to coerce confessions. . . . These practices fly in the face of the fundamental duty of prosecutors: to seek truth and pursue justice.”

Krinsky is a former federal prosecutor and now the Executive Director of Fair and Just Prosecution.  Serpas is former Chief of Police for New Orleans and now Professor of Criminology at Loyola University.

Georgia prison official loses his job for objecting to informant program

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Georgia prison captain Sherman Maine was fired when he objected to a secret, off-the-books informant program being run in high security prisons in which informants were given cell phones.  From the story:

“Maine said the secrecy of the program makes it impossible to know if the reward is worth the risk. ‘Now every stabbing becomes suspect,’ said Maine, 45. ‘We won’t know who’s an informant or not. They’re going to get someone killed, if they haven’t already.’ . . .  Maine said [the program] reveals a lack of respect for human life while exposing the state to great liability. ‘They de-value human life to the point that it’s ridiculous,’ he said. ‘The state kept referring to (informants) as tools. They’re not tools, they’re people, and we have an obligation to protect them.’”

Maine is suing the Department of Corrections for violations of the Georgia Whistleblower Act.

Snitches snitching on snitches

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I write critically about criminal informants, but it bears remembering how they enabled the FBI to break the mafia.  In June, mob boss “Cadillac Frank” Salemme was convicted of ordering the murder of a witness.  Key witnesses against Salemme included Stephen “Rifleman” Flemmi, infamous killer informant in his own right who avoided the death penalty by testifying against Salemme and others. Salemme himself had been living under federal witness protection for having testified for the government over a decade ago.  As one lawyer commented about the old mafia leadership, “Everybody’s been burned to a crisp here by informants.”

Whether it’s good public policy to cut deals with murderers in order to go after other murderers is a subject of long debate. At least some in Congress didn’t think so–see this report: Everything Secret Degenerates: the FBI’s Use of Murderers as Informants.  It is now a violation of Department of Justice guidelines for the FBI to permit one of its informants to commit a violent crime, but violent criminals get leniency all the time in exchange for cooperation.

North Dakota passes cutting edge legislation

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In the wake of the death of college student Andrew Sadek, North Dakota has passed Andrew’s Law, an important piece of legislation that sets a new standard in informant reform.  Some of the most heartening aspects of the bill are as follows:

  • It bans the use of informants who are 15 years old or younger. Only California and New Jersey currently ban the use of juvenile informants at the state level, and their cutoff is 12 years old.  
  • College police may not use college students as informants.
  • Police officers must be trained before they use informants.
  • All informant agreements must be in writing. The agreement must include, among other things, an explanation of what the informant is expected to do and what benefit they can expect to receive.  This is particularly important since young and vulnerable informants may not know what is expected of them, and law enforcement may continue to use them without clear boundaries or limits.
  • The agreement must tell the informant of their right to consult with counsel.
  • The agreement must warn the informant that the work may be dangerous.
  • The bill creates procedures for complaints, and an investigative process when an informant is killed.
This legislation is the culmination of a decade-long public debate over vulnerable informants that has been brewing since 23-year-old Rachel Hoffman was killed in Florida in 2008.  Since then, we have learned about the rampant, unregulated use of young informants, and how some campus police pressure college students into risking their education and even their lives.  North Dakota’s new law is one of the best responses so far.  More details from the Huffington Post here.

Intercept publishes FBI informant manual

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The Intercept has published the FBI’s 2015 Confidential Human Source Policy Guide. It includes policies on recruitment, payments, and international informants: The FBI Gives Itself A Lot of Rope to Pull In Informants.  From the article:

“The classified guidelines reveal:
  • Before approaching a potential informant, agents are encouraged to build a file on that person, using information obtained during an FBI assessment, including derogatory information and information gleaned from other informants. The FBI claims that it seeks derogatory information in order not to be blindsided by its informants’ vulnerabilities, but such material may also be useful in coercing cooperation from otherwise unwilling recruits.
  • FBI agents may use undercover identities to recruit informants, including online. These approaches are not limited by a rule stipulating that agents and informants are allowed no more than five meetings with a target before their activity is subject to supervisory approval as an undercover operation.
  • With permission from supervisors, FBI agents may recruit minors as informants. They may also, with permission from the U.S. Department of Justice, recruit clergy, lawyers, and journalists.
  • Informants may operate in other countries for the FBI, and the FBI guidelines do not require notification to be given to the host countries.”