Loading...
Police informers and professional ethics
Harfield, Clive
Harfield, Clive
Author
Abstract
The use of informers is morally problematic for police institutions, for investigation managers, and for those individuals either who act as informers or who have daily responsibility for handling informers. This paper examines the moral issues concerning informers at each of these levels. Recourse to informers can be accommodated within Miller and Blackler's moral theory of policing. Within this context, criteria for the morally justifiable deployment of informers are proposed and supplemented with further proposed criteria for morally justifiable informer participation in crime. Morally justifiable recruitment of informers is also considered. Despite directly serving the purpose of policing, informers do not incur police professional obligations.
Keywords
informers, informer recruitment, entrapment, deception, undercover policing, covert investigation, moral theory of policing
Date
2012
Type
Journal article
Journal
Criminal Justice Ethics
Book
Volume
31
Issue
2
Page Range
73-95
Article Number
ACU Department
Thomas More Law School
Faculty of Law and Business
Faculty of Law and Business
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as green open access
License
File Access
Controlled
Open
Open