Human Intelligence Sources:
Challenges in Policy Development
Author: Charl Crous
Volume 5, Number 3 (Spring 2009), pp. 117-127.
Abstract
Police organisations are developing Intelligence Led Policing initiatives to enhance the knowledge of the criminal environment for effective resource deployment. One of the key policing techniques available to police is the use of Covert Human Sources formerly also known as criminal informers. The police—informer relationship has been known as a high risk relationship especially in the area of ethics and integrity. A number of commissions of inquiry has also criticised this relationship. This paper reflects on the challenges for police to develop policy to ensure a professional framework for police–human source conduct. The paper reflects on what an effective human source is in the criminal intelligence sense and what the basic elements of an effective operational framework are.
About the Author
Charl Crous is the Policing Development Manager for Auckland Metro Crime and Operations Support (AMCOS) and chaired the CHIS working group of the New Zealand Police which reviewed the policy on criminal informers in the New Zealand Police. charl.crous@police.govt.nz.
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