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Snitches in the News: Informant use at root of many scandals

The reminder this morning about UT-Austin police spying on student groups led me to think about a topic I've strayed from recently on Grits - confidential informants. Several recent stories (most of them outside of Texas, to be sure) demonstrate that it would be easy to devote an entire blog to the subject of informants and the risks their use poses to police integrity and public safety. Here are some recent examples:The ringleader of the nation's biggest identity theft case turned out to be someone working for the US Secret Service as an snitch.A grand jury in Florida issued a 6-page rebuke of local police and the DEA for a botched drug buy in which an informant "in over her head" was murdered while 19 officers from different agencies were supposed to be watching her...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on August 29, 2008 (boomark / email).