Confidential Informant Rating – The Rats Used in Law Enforcement

Many jurors will answer “no”, and may even ignore the information provided by a rat or informant in court.

It is known that the thieves in the street like rats, clearly confidential informants or informants are a valuable asset to the implementation of the police and the law. Its value as a witness in court is inversely proportional to its value as a member of society. That is, the deeper it is a reporting of crime, the most valuable testimony becomes.

Use of police informants is an integral part of many law enforcement agencies in the United States. It would be difficult to carry out an investigation if the police do not use such shady individuals. For the confidential informant, doing his job as such, is a double-edged sword. For police, the intimate knowledge of an informant of criminal activity which makes it a valuable inside information. However, their involvement in criminal activities undermine their credibility. The informant’s reliability is directly related to their involvement in criminal activities. In court, his knowledge of criminal activities taking place makes it a reliable witness. On the other hand, their involvement in criminal damage to its credibility.

How criminal investigators expand the informant’s reliability and minimize the damage to his credibility? Researchers around this problem by using what is known as the totality of the circumstances test. The totality of the evidence of the circumstances referred to a collection of facts and circumstances in connection with a case and is used to evaluate and support any information provided by an informant. If all the facts and circumstances that are considered as a whole and support the information provided by the informant, we conclude that the informant’s information is highly reliable. The criminal investigator can also verify the credibility of the informant to testify in the witness stand that he has used the reporting of services in the past for information leading to arrests and / or convictions.

For the informant, security is always on the line. To enforce the law, field officers do not have to put their lives at risk by working undercover when they have an insider to do the job for them. The security officer is not at risk unless they work undercover. For this reason, informants are a valuable asset.

Fabiola Castillo is an online marketer for the website NinjaCOPS Superstore. This virtual store specializes in crime prevention tools where you can buy cheap stun guns, keychains kubatons, spy cameras hidden video surveillance, nunchaku training videos, civilian Tasers, steel batons, and many other products personal safety.