Undercover Police Officers Research Articles

Being watched: The aftermath of covert policing

AbstractThe ongoing Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI) is largely a response to a stream of national media scandals that exposed the illegal and unethical behaviour of undercover police officers in two secretive units. The testimony of those who were the targets of undercover operations has further exposed the human costs stemming from the personalised and highly invasive surveillance undertaken by anonymous state agents. In this article, we reflect upon the existing research on covert policing and identify new areas for conceptual and methodological engagement, with a view to better understanding the harms that these secretive operations can generate. Attending to the inherent and inescapable intimacy of covert policing offers a much‐needed opportunity to explore the effects of a unique state practice that can radically alter the lives of individual surveillance subjects, and which tests our conventional understandings of the legitimacy and limits of force, coercion and police power.

Perkins Operations: Tactics Used in Undercover Interactions

In the United States, it is permissible to place an undercover police officer in the jail cell with a suspect. This tactical move is rare and launched only for serious crimes, and it takes place before any charges have been filed. This tactic goes under the name of Perkins operations, from the case ruling that if an individual speaks freely to someone whom they believe is a fellow inmate it is allowed to take advantage of their misplaced trust (Illinois v. Perkins, 1990). In this study, we examine 22 Perkins operations, 60 hours of secretly taped interactions in the cells, and we describe and categorize the different approaches and tactics that the undercover officers used. Based on the descriptive analysis, we conceptualize two pathways to information elicitation (direct and relational) and explore the undercover officers’ use of risky interview tactics. The findings suggest that undercover officers use four broader approaches to establish relationships and gather information, and we were able to identify only a few instances of risky tactics in this sample. The relevance of the findings for human intelligence gathering and counterintelligence are discussed.

Being Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Role-Based Identity Foils in Organizational Life

Soldier-medic. Undercover police officer. Collaborative divorce attorney. Certain jobs require an individual to enact antithetical sets of role expectations (to do X and not-X), such as saving a life and taking a life, in the case of a soldier-medic. Despite their important consequences, we lack a unifying framework for such antithetical expectations and their implied identity foils—where one is expected to be both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (a life-saver and a life-taker). To this end, we build theory on how and why antithetical expectations and their implied identity foils arise in organizations. We offer a model of the responses through which individuals tend to manage these seemingly impossible binds—avoidance, favoritism, gray compromise, black-and-white compromise, and holism—and discuss the conditions under which a given response is likely. We conclude that this respective order of responses predicts more positive outcomes (i.e., clarifying the identities, fostering resources, enabling complementary or synergistic solutions) and less negative outcomes (i.e., impaired jobholder performance and credibility, increased cynicism) for individuals and their organizations. We theorize that, given certain conditions, the extreme role-based conflict caused by identity foils is best addressed by the response of holism.

On Improving the Efficiency of Criminal Law Counteraction to Terrorism

The subject of research is the norms of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (further referred to as the CC RF) aimed at counteracting terrorism. After the enaction of the key counterterrorism Federal Law “On Counteracting Terrorism”, the CC RF was supplemented by a set of new antiterrorist Articles (2051–2056), which considerably improved its counterterrorist potential and the criminal law protection of individuals, the society and the state against terrorist threats. Meanwhile, the current counterterrorist norms have certain faults. The definition of terrorist activities is inconsistent: Art. 3 of the Federal Law “On Counteracting Terrorism” and Art. 2052 of the CC RF offer different interpretations, which contributes to contradictions in investigation and court practice. The solution can lie in introducing a unified definition of terrorist activity, and the definition in the edition of the CC RF (Art. 2052) looks preferable. It is suggested to reconstruct formal elements of crime under Art. 2052 the CC RF (in the part regarding the public justification of terrorism, by introducing an administrative prejudice), and Art. 205 and 207 (by making the threat of committing a terrorist act as separate crime, encompassing false information on terrorist acts against objects of social infrastructure or with the purpose of destabilizing the work of public authorities). The author presents some ideas on the legal support of planting an undercover police officer in criminal, including terrorist, organizations. The author also suggests the wording of amendments to Art. 75 of the CC RF and Art. 28 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the RF, as well as the introduction of false complicity — a new circumstance excluding the criminal character of the action.

Disrupted and Unsettled: An Introduction to Monuments, Memorials, and Italian Migrations

Disrupted and Unsettled: An Introduction to Monuments, Memorials, and Italian Migrations

Politiets infiltration på digitale platforme – set i et menneskeretligt perspektiv

AbstractIn the physical wodd, police 'infiltration' traditionally refers to investigations in which incognito police officers blend in with, for example, guests in bars and restaurants for the purpose of eavesdropping. So far, traditional infiltration has not been subject to regulation in Denmark as this has not been deemed legally necessary. A number of novel legal problems present themselves, however, in relation to police infiltration of the digital world. In this context, undercover police officers gain access to closed, private forums on the Internet. The current article argues that police infiltration of digital platforms risks violating the right to private life and private communication under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and argues that a tighter legal regulation be enacted in this area. These considerations on infiltration may also be relevant to matters of criminalprocedure in, inter alia, Norway and Sweden, as police infiltrations in these neighboring countries also take place without specific statutory regulation.

‘Send Me Some Pics’: Performing the Offender Identity in Online Undercover Child Abuse Investigations

Abstract This article presents a case study examining the performance of the offender identity in online child sexual abuse interactions between genuine suspected offenders and an undercover officer posing as an offender. Using a linguistic framework known as move analysis, the study describes and compares interactants' use of rhetorical moves, as well as move frequencies and structures. Similarities and differences in the performance of offenderness between suspected offenders and the undercover police officer are discussed. Interactions are characterised by a high level of rapport-building, sharing stories, and exchanging support. While the undercover officer largely emulates the moves of suspected offenders, key discrepancies include his comparative reluctance to engage in abuse-related story-telling and an increased tendency to inquire about abusive images. This work highlights possible target areas for police training in the task of online identity assumption in online child abuse cases.

An Exploration of Well-being in Former Covert and Undercover Police Officers

Little is known about the stressors of working in covert and undercover policing roles and the impact these can have on the health and psychological well-being of police officers. Extant literature focuses upon the social impact of undercover and covert policing in a democratic society, especially in relation to policing political groups. Presented here are the results of an exploratory study into the lives of former police officers who have engaged in various forms of covert/undercover policing. Utilising semi-structured interviews, in a five-participant case-study design, this research investigates the impact that covert and undercover policing has on the well-being of former officers who have undertaken this role, and how they utilised coping strategies. Data were thematically analysed using Braun and Clarke’s framework (Braun and Clarke 2006). Findings were consistent in that fear of violence was a large factor that impacted the well-being and personal relationships of undercover officers. The paper concludes by outlining pertinent suggestions for future research and considers the implications for covert policing.

‘Everyone was questioning everything’: understanding the derailing impact of undercover policing on the lives of UK environmentalists

ABSTRACT Between 1968 and 2011, over 150 undercover police officers (spycops) covertly infiltrated more than 1000 political groups in the UK, a large majority of which were left leaning . Undercover officers perpetrated a range of harmful practices including deceiving women into sex; fathering children whilst undercover ; active participation in criminality & acting as agent provocateurs; appearing in court under false identities thus contributing to potential miscarriages of justice, as well as using the identities of dead children without obtaining consent from families. Based on qualitative, biographical interviews with spied-on environmentalists, this article explores the impact of undercover policing on the lives of UK activists. It argues that, in addition to the documented harm and trauma caused by spycops, three further dimensions of impact can be identified. These are ontological uncertainty, whereby activists conceptions of a fixed and stable external reality are fundamentally challenged; derailing, whereby activists were diverted away from environmentalism in a number of different ways both pre and post-exposure of spycops, including diversions into anti-state surveillance activism; and finally, resilience, whereby the agency of activists in the face of egregious human rights abuses is evident. The article argues that the concept of derailing can help to conceptualise the chilling effect of state incursions into activism, whilst also accounting for those who maintained their activism following the revelations.

How Do Terrorists Choose Their Targets for an Attack? The View from inside an Independent Cell

ABSTRACT The present article aims to further our understanding of the process whereby terrorists choose targets for attacks. It offers a case study based on information from a jihadist cell broken up by police in the province of Barcelona, Spain in April 2015 in Operation Caronte. Based on detailed analysis of conversations between cell members, obtained thanks to infiltration by an undercover police officer, it argues that the terrorist brainstorming was informed by four main factors: organizational, contextual, logistical, and geographical. The materialization of the desire to use violence in an attack plan was the dynamic outcome of the way these factors modulated the will of the terrorists.

Financing terrorism through hawala banking in Switzerland

PurposeThis paper aims to illustrate the feasibility of circumventing the Swiss financial sector’s compliance mechanisms by financing terrorism through hawala networks.Design/methodology/approachBased upon a qualitative content analysis of 15 informal interviews with providers of illegal financial services and 15 formal interviews with compliance experts and law enforcement officers, the general suitability of hawala networks for the financing of terrorism was assessed and concrete methods of doing so were better understood. In addition, it is shown how terrorists can limit their risks in using the services of hawala bankers.FindingsHawala banking in Switzerland is extraordinarily useful for the financing of terrorism.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are based on semi-standardized interviews limited to the perspectives of the 30 interviewees.Practical implicationsLaw enforcement and intelligence agencies must be provided with additional tools, such as a broader scope of allowable activity for undercover police officers and the possibility of secretly conducting remote online searches of electronic devices. While this article focuses on Switzerland, its findings could be applied on a global level.Originality/valueWhile the existing literature focuses on understanding the channels terrorists can use to finance their activities and on developing prevention mechanisms, this paper describes exactly how terrorism can be financed through hawala networks in Switzerland.

Raped by the State

Discusses the effect of deception upon consent in the context of sexual offences. Questions whether undercover police officers who had sexual relationships with members of groups they had infiltrated could be liable for rape.

Undercover Policing, Overstated Culpability

This Article examines the legal doctrine of “sentencing manipulation,” a claim, raised at the time of sentencing, in which the defendant argues that undercover police officers purposefully encouraged him to commit particular criminal conduct in order to expose him to a higher, and often mandatory, punishment. Currently, the sentencing manipulation claim has no consistent animating theory nor uniform definition or procedural treatment. Based on traditional theories of punishment as well as the systemic interest in an accurate determination of a defendant’s culpability, this Article argues that inducements, used by undercover officers and their agents to encourage the suspect to commit particular criminal conduct, should be the central focus of a reformed sentencing manipulation doctrine. The sentencing manipulation doctrine as currently conceived fails to recognize the potential and problematic impact of police inducements on an assessment of a defendant’s culpability and reflects binary concerns of guilt versus innocence that, while perhaps appropriate for a claim made at trial, are inapposite for a claim made at the time of sentencing. In determining where to draw the line between police inducements that affect a defendant’s culpability and those that do not, this Article also suggests a new way to view police conduct — on a continuum ranging from conduct that “facilitated culpability” to conduct that “overstated culpability.” A reformed doctrine of sentencing manipulation, as proposed by this Article, appropriately directs courts’ focus to inducements used by the police or their agents that result in the overstatement of a defendant’s culpability, and to offense conduct which should therefore be removed from the sentencing calculus.

Visibility and the Policing of Public Space

From studies of ‘panoptic’ CCTV surveillance to accounts of undercover police officers, it is often mooted that visibility and invisibility are central to the policing of public space. However, there has been no comprehensive and critical assessment of this axiom. Drawing on the practices of a variety of policing providers and regulators, and the work of geographers, criminologists and other social scientists, this paper examines how and why visibility underpins the policing of public space. We begin by considering the ways in which policing bodies and technologies seek to render themselves selectively visible and invisible in the landscape. The paper then moves on to explore the ways in which policing agents attempt to make ‘incongruous’ bodies, behaviours and signs variously visible and invisible in public space. We then offer a sympathetic critique of these accounts, arguing that more attention is needed in understanding: (i) how other senses such as touch, smell and sound are socially constructed as in and out-of-place and ‘policed’ accordingly; and (ii) how the policing of undesirable bodies and practices is not simply about quantitative crime reduction, but conducted through qualitative, embodied performance. The paper concludes by pinpointing key areas for future research.

Apples and oranges: ethnography and the IRB

This article outlines the trials and tribulations encountered in negotiating institutional review board approval of ethnographic research among undercover police officers and recreational drug users in dance club settings. While Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and ethnographic research seek to protect the participants of research, they operate on two diametrically opposed paths. Ethnographers enter the research field with the goal of observing natural behavior, and taking steps to ensure they do not influence activity; anonymity is impossible, while confidentiality essential. IRBs, on the contrary, mandate an informed consent and oversight process that can compromise confidentiality. This has greatly affected contemporary ethnographic research and has had serious consequences for both the research participants and the production of knowledge.

Symptoms of undercover police officers: A comparison of officers currently, formerly, and without undercover experience.

Symptoms of undercover police officers: A comparison of officers currently, formerly, and without undercover experience.

Rape Myth Acceptance in Men Who Completed the Prostitution Offender Program of British Columbia

In an effort to characterize the attitudes and characteristics of men who solicit sex, this study investigated rape myth acceptance as assessed by a modification of Burt's Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. The participants were all men who took part in the Prostitution Offender Program of British Columbia after being arrested for attempting to solicit sex from an undercover police officer. Relationships between endorsement of rape myths, other attitudes, sexual behavior, and demographic variables were examined. Results reveal that age, education, use of pornography, ideal frequency of intercourse, and believing that purchasing sex is a problem are all negatively correlated with rape myth acceptance. Positive correlations were found between rape myth acceptance and sexual conservatism, sexual violence/coercion, and social desirability. Results are discussed in terms of the association between rape myth acceptance and the violence frequently perpetrated against those working in the sex trade.

The Attitudes Toward Prostitution Scale

The Attitudes Toward Prostitution Scale (ATPS) assesses the beliefs of men who purchase sex from prostitutes. Items for the ATPS were administered to a U.S. multisite sample of 1,001 men who had been arrested for soliciting an undercover police officer and subsequently referred to a psychoeducational program. Principal axis factor analysis was conducted, and it yielded three valid factors: Social/Legal Support of Prostitution, Beliefs About Prostitutes, and Family Values Related to Prostitution. Scale-item reliability was assessed with Cronbach's alpha on a second independent sample of 74 men, which offered data to support ATPS internal consistency and reliability. Based on these results, scale scores were standardized for practical use in research and clinical applications, and interpretation norms were established for a population of men who buy sex. A brief case example illustrates the practical use of the ATPS for assessment and intervention planning for customers of sex workers.

Becoming an undercover police officer: a note on fairness perceptions, behavior, and attitudes

AbstractReactions to an undercover police officer selection system were analyzed for 271 officers. Officers given undercover assignments had higher procedural justice perceptions and outcome satisfaction than others awaiting assignment in a qualified applicant pool. Procedural and distributive justice perceptions were subsequently related to the undercover officer's job performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sometimes Funny, but Most Times Deadly Serious: Amiri Baraka as Political Satirist

Smash and bludgeon forty-one times a day Tie him to a tree in front of city hail So every one of his victims families and friends Can make Forty-one ass-whipping calls (Baraka, Giuliani 20) During a poetry workshop at the Betty Shabazz Wholistic Retreat Center in the summer of 2000, Amiri Baraka debuted a new satiric poem that he had been working on for a political anthology entitled Keeping Track: 41 Voices, 41 Visions for Amadou Diallo. longstanding tension between New York City Mayor Rudolph and his constituents (some members of the lower class and minorities, especially African Americans) came to a head when the unarmed African emigrant was gunned down by four undercover New York City Police Officers in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment building in February 1999. case of mistaken identity, the special Street Crime Unit shot at the defenseless twenty-two-year-old forty-one times, striking him nineteen. Long before the shooting, however, Mayor had been harshly criticized for fostering an atmosphere in which citizens have a right to fear the police, and since, for impatiently mishandling the investigation into the special crime unit whose motto is ironically taken from a Baraka poem, Own the Night. In the poem A Proposal for Giuliani's Disposal in Forty-one Verses Which Are Also Curses, Baraka viciously lampoons Mayor for what many activists and citizens believe to be Giuliani's complicity in the murder of the innocent young man, and the city's strong-armed attack upon the people of New York. Before he read, Baraka joked that soon after he had written the poem cursing Giuliani, the inhumane mayor was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The audience laughed, Baraka chuckled, but given his illustrated knowledge of Yoruba conjure, his belief in the West African concept of Nommo, the power of the word, and his almost four decades of radical activism, Amiri Baraka could have been deadly serious. Baraka's Modest Proposal, unlike eighteenth-century satirist Jonathan Swift's satiric prose piece of the same title, relies heavily upon Juvenalian satire, which the Encyclopedia Britannica defines as any bitter and ironic criticism of contemporary persons and institutions that is filled with personal invective, angry moral indignation, and pessimism. Here's an example: Dog Dick Pus, Ugly wound ... The Bad Breath of Ibis, The Devil's Gas, Criminal G, Successor, R Like the Child Killer, White Death, Black Death, Murder Man, Death Jam, Mayor NAZI Chiller, Insane Killer, Rudy Maniac, Murder Beast, Rudy the Vile, 666, City Hall Hitler, The Ice Man, Killer Rudy, Rudy Death, Rudy The Ripper, Crazy Rudy, Doo Doo De Sade, Grand Dragon of The Apple, Mayor Murderer, Alcalde Diablo ... Serial Assassin. Though quite funny, the poem never allows the reader to forget the tragedy that inspired it. The phrase 41, the number of bullets the police shot at the unarmed African, which recurs in all forty-one verses, stands as a testament to the excessive force that Mayor allowed to be visited upon the people. The reader may laugh, but will forever link Mayor to the murder of innocence. Baraka's contemporary satiric poem, though less sophisticated than his satiric drama of the '60s and '70s, has evolved just as the word warrior himself has evolved, as well as the world and the people for whom he writes. We are no longer embroiled in open racial warfare, as when Dutchman, the first play by Amiri Baraka, then LeRoi Jones, was produced in 1964. Therefore, his contemporary satire has to meet the people where they are (often times in their comfort zone), without being preachy or overtly didactic. Baraka calls Dahmer's Successor ... Death Jam, Mayor NAZI, Chiller, Insane Killer ... Rudy The Ripper ... Doo Doo Brain, and his message is immediately received. Readers might be inspired to action--maybe to attend a rally, withdraw all support from Giuliani's administration; maybe to write letters to their congressman and hold all such politicians accountable for their deeds for and against the people. …