Informers : Policing, policy, practice

Description

The police rely heavily on paid and unpaid informers: without them clear-up rates would plummet, and many crimes would remain undetected. Yet little is known about the informer system and how it works, for example: who are these informers? how are they recruited? how are they handled? who handles them? what sort of information do they provide? Recent high profile cases have drawn attention to the use of informers, there has been a growing debate about the subject, and many feel that stricter controls are needed - but how is this to be achieved without undermining the effectiveness of the syste.  Read more... Abstract: The police rely heavily on paid and unpaid informers: without them clear-up rates would plummet, and many crimes would remain undetected. Yet little is known about the informer system and how it works, for example: who are these informers? how are they recruited? how are they handled? who handles them? what sort of information do they provide? Recent high profile cases have drawn attention to the use of informers, there has been a growing debate about the subject, and many feel that stricter controls are needed - but how is this to be achieved without undermining the effectiveness of the syste Content: Cover Informers: Policing, policy, practice Copyright Contents Foreword Preface Editors' preface Notes on the contributors Introduction 1 Drugs, crime and informers 2 Informers and corruption 3 The ethics of informer handling 4 Informers, agents and accountability: some matters arising from the use of human information sources by the Police and the Security Service 5 Informers' careers: motivations and change 6 Gender issues in informer handling 7 Juvenile informers 8 Where the grass is greener?: supergrasses in comparative perspective. 9 Managing anonymous informants through Crimestoppers10 Informers and witness protection schemes 11 Regulating informers: the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, covert policing and human rights Index.