Question

List 10 pros and cons of police informants.

Answer 1

# PROS

# Police Informants play a key role, especially in U.S. criminal system as police rely heavily on them to obtain information and get warrants

# they are the ones who can provide a better picture of events as they are better trusted in society than police ( also as most of the time society does not know they are interacting with a police informant)

#Police and indirectly society get helped by police informants as they identify thieves ,bring down mafia godfathers and even big drug cartles

# they help police dismantle criminal operations

# Information deal is used in every class of offence, from white collar crime to child pornography to murder

# they have also been important features in evolution of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI) , the White-Collar enforcement strategies o fthe U.S. department of Justice, and recently the war of terror.

# they inform authorities about corrupt government officials

# they help explain changes or facilitating factors that might otherwise not emerge from the data

# female informants are very good source of information

# many crimes would go unsolved without police informants and hence they are valuable tool for law enforcement

• CONS

• Police informants usually are offenders who trade information in exchange for leniency towards their own offences
• They work without direct supervision
• They may lie about their and other’s activities and misinterpret or overgeneralize information
• They may also invent criminal testimony for their benefit
• Many times for absolute credence, police has to depend on corroborating evidence like audio, video
• As the government tolerate or sometimes even forgives informants criminal activities, the informant deal has become a problematic crime management policy
• Some other issues are increased crime and violence. Unreliable evidence used in warrants and prosecutions
• It has also brought community distrust for police
• Despite strict police policy , weather the informant is officially registered doesn’t not matter in court
• A clearer line which can define who can be or who cannot be an informant is absent as of now and it can make any one, with any kind of past a police informant