Informers Policing, policy, practice

The police rely heavily on paid and unpaid informers: without them clear-up rates would plummet, and many crimes would remain undetected. Yet little is known about the informer system and how it works, for example: who are these informers? how are they recruited? how are they handled? who handles them? what sort of information do they provide? Recent high profile cases have drawn attention to the use of informers, there has been a growing debate about the subject, and many feel that stricter controls are needed - but how is this to be achieved without undermining the effectiveness of the system? This is the first book of its kind on informers in Britain, providing an invaluable source of information and analysis from key authorities in the field.

Foreword by Sir John Evans Preface by David Wakenshaw 1. Introduction, Roger Billingsley, Teresa Nemitz, Philip Bean 2. Drugs, Crime and Informers, Philip Bean and Roger Billingsley 3. Law Enforcement Ethics: is principled informant handling possible?, Dr Tom Williamson and Peter Bagshaw 4. Informers, Agents and Accountability: the use of human information sources by the Police and the Security Service, Nigel South 5. Informer careers: motivation and change, Roger Billingsley 6. Gender issues of Informer Handling, Teresa Nemitz 7. Juvenile informers, Carole Ballardie and Paul Iganski 8. Where the Grass is Greener? Supergrasses in comparative perspective, Steven Greer 9. Managing Anonymous Informants through Crimestoppers, Bill Griffiths and Alan Murphy 10. Witness Protection Schemes, Philip Bean 11. Regulating informers: RIP A, covert policing and human rights, P. Neyroud and P. Beckley

Roger Billingsley ishead of the Covert Policing Standards Unit at New Scotland Yard. Teresa Nemitz lectures at the Midlands Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice, Loughborough University. Philip Beanis Emeritus Professor of Criminology and formerly Director of the Midland Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice at Loughborough.