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Now you pay attention: Lying informants in Brooklyn get NY Times thinking about snitches

By Gritsforbreakfast

Informants or "snitches" have been called the "life blood" of police work, says the New York Times, but they may also be a "poison."Naturally, despite bad informant cases all over the country, it took a major case of a mendacious informant in NYC proper for the Grey Lady to pay closer attention to the subject, which it does today in an overview of problems created by police reliance on snitches ("Officers' arrests puts spotlight on police use of informants," Jan. 28):The issue of confidential informants was thrust into the spotlight last week by news that four narcotics officers in Brooklyn had been arrested, in a case that involves accusations of paying informants with drugs seized from dealers the informants had pointed them to. The officers are not suspected of making any illegal profit, and one law enforcement official has said police officers? trading of drugs for information in the pursuit of arrests could be described as ?noble-cause corruption...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on January 28, 2008 (boomark / email).