Why Informants Is Important

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Police officers have used informants for several different reasons over the years. This tactic has been in practice for many years now with mixed results. Informants can either be an asset or hindrance depending on the situations that unfold during the investigation. Over time we have seen that for the most part using informants can be useful and can help make a case, but we have also seen the down-side where it has made the case fall completely apart in a vicious turn that the officers did not want to happen. In this paper I plan to cover the topics of: the use of informants, the down-side of using informants, how officers can misuse informants, and the benefits of informants. Informants have been used by government agencies for many years …show more content…

Police officers should under no circumstances physically harm anyone for any reason. Officers have also in the past used informants as bait and put their lives in danger just to try and catch a criminal. We as citizens should be able to put our trust in these officer, but sadly that trust has been broken too many times. Officers that misuse informants can also with-hold evidence such as drugs or money for themselves and just continue this cycle and then put the blame on the informant that is more than likely already facing jail time. We should all make sure that police officers remain in check and that they do not receive too much power, because things like this happen. Officers generally misuse informants out of greed or out of a want for power. In Philadelphia in 1995 a police district got caught fabricating informants in order to get search warrants for people’s homes and properties. This incident blew up into a huge scandal leaving the use of informants up in the air. (US Legal, "Informants Law & Legal …show more content…

An informant can go in and not be suspected as anything being out of place so in these situations they are able to get the most information as possible for the case. Informants are also very useful when it comes to setting someone up. These informants can set up a drug deal and get away with it for the simple fact that they more than likely knew them. In some situations the case needs a confession to make sure it will not fall through in court so in these cases the informant can simply wear a wire and the officers will be able to record everything going on or being said in the room. With hardcore evidence there is not a judge nor jury that will not prosecute the law to the fullest