Speaking Truth to Power: Confidential Informants and Police Investigations

by Dean A. Dabney, Richard Tewksbury

Overview

Domestic drug enforcement takes many forms, from the rural patrol officer who happens upon a small-scale mobile “shake and bake” methamphetamine lab during a routine traffic stop, to the city narcotics detective who initiates a low-level buy-bust operation that nets a few hits of crack cocaine on the street corner, to the local, state, and federal agents working in multiagency task forces that coordinate a sting operation that nets thousands of kilos of near-pure cocaine being transported by tractor-trailer. Regardless of the form, there is a high probability that these authorities have exploited access to known offenders and exerted pressure on those individuals to gather inside information on illicit drug sales. These confidential informants provide intelligence on the inner workings of drug operations in exchange for leniency or remuneration, providing a relatively cheap source of intelligence that fuels much of the ongoing war on drugs. In other instances, law enforcement authorities will reach out to members of the criminal underworld who are willing to provide valuable intelligence in exchange for money. Despite the central role of informants in contemporary police operations, little is known about the shadowy relationships among law enforcement, snitches, and offenders. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the narcotics, homicide, and street-level vice operations in two major metropolitan police departments, Speaking Truth to Power takes readers to the front lines of the war on drugs to unravel this complex web of information exchange.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520290464
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	08/02/2016
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Dean A. Dabney is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University.
Richard Tewksbury is Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Louisville. 
 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

1 • Police and Confidential Informants
2 • Study Methods
3 • Types of Informants
4 • Working with Informants
5 • The Game: Th e Impact of Community Context on Informant Use
6 • Maintaining Relationships with Informants
7 • Benefits of Working with Informants
8 • Pitfalls of Working with Informants
9 • Summary and Implications

References
Index

Editorial Reviews

"The text includes a succinct review of both applied and scholarly literature that describes some historical precedent to the use of civilian informants as a source of information."

Theory in Action

"An excellent work that earns its rightful place alongside other scholarly CI literature... well-written and extends the theoretical literature on CIs."

Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books