Working with informants is a necessary, though often distasteful part of conducting successful investigations. This is usually because most of the time we are relying on criminals to help us get criminals. Our informants seeking judicial considerations often carry as much baggage as the suspects they are helping us get. However, with a little proactivity on your part, here are five sources for information that can be extremely helpful in generating cases and do not carry the same negative issues as the criminal informant.
1. Hotel/Motel Employees: Identify a hotel/motel known for attracting criminal activity. Contact the management of the hotel and offer to provide a brief (2-3 hours) training session in recognizing suspicious behavior and illegal contraband for the hotel work staff. The training should especially be geared toward frontline employees working the desk and the cleaning staff. Then implement an awards program for employees who provide information that leads to an arrest. This could be money from your agency, gift cards from neighboring restaurants/business that will also benefit from removing criminal activity from the area, or internal rewards provided by the hotel employer.
2. Car Rental Agencies: Have a car rental business in your area? Why not develop a contact at the office and educate them in common behaviors associated with drug traffickers in terms of rental vehicles. Do they have frequent customers who pay cash? Do these customers often rent vehicles for short periods like 1-2 days and return them with excessive mileage? Being tipped off to a customer who meets these characteristics could lead to a very large drug seizure. If so, a letter of appreciation to the employee/informants supervisor could go a long way in helping him/her in their job, as well as encouraging them to continue to provide information.
3. Pharmacists: Did you know that pharmaceutical drug abuse is the fastest growing threat in drug related crime? Yet, few departments dedicate any resources to handling pharmaceutical investigations. This in spite the fact that pharmaceutical drug abusers are increasingly involved in commercial robberies of pharmacies, residential burglaries specifically targeting elderly and infermed people, identity theft, as well as corrupt doctors. Many pharmacists simply turn offenders away who are attempting to pass fraudulent or suspicious prescriptions because they do not think the police will get involved. Take it upon yourself to establish a relationship with pharmacists and you could get tips on very worthy criminal suspects leading to outstanding criminal arrests.
4. Convenience Store Clerks: You know that store that stays open late where you and your colleagues gather for a cup of coffee to get you through the midnight shift? Did you ever notice the amount of drug related paraphernalia that they sell. Rolling papers, blunt cigars, glass vials (with cheap plastic roses in them to disguise their real purpose), "Blunt out" air freshener, etc. While you are sipping that cup of coffee, how about forging a relationship with the clerk and encourage him to call/text you the next time someone comes in and buys a "paraphernalia package." It can be a simple as texting you a tag number. In just such a situation the information provided by the clerk once led me to a pretty significant indoor marijuana grow operation. And all it cost me was a cup of coffee!
5. Bank Security Employees: Do you think it would be interesting to know about a person who deposits between $5000 and $9000 on three occassions on the same day at different bank branches? Did you know that banks should document such incidents on a Suspicious Activity Report which is available to law enforcement (but must not be disclosed to unauthorized individuals). By developing a relationship with the security personnel of a bank, you may receive a courtesy call alerting you to this type of activity and suggesting you might want to obtain a subpoena for a persons account information. This just might lead you to a gold mine of seizeable assets.
Ways in which to develop unconventional informants is just one topic that is covered in the Signal 13 "Developing and Managing Informants" course. You can register for this course which is already being offered in several locations in 2012, or learn how to become a host agency for the course and receive free training for some of your officers by visiting our website at http://www.signal13training.com/.
