nark.”
narc /närk / nark I. noun ‹informal› (chiefly N. Amer.) a federal agent or police officer who enforces the laws regarding illicit sale or use of drugs and narcotics. – origin 1960s: abbreviation of narcotic.
"Informer", "Stool pigeon", and "Confidential Informant" redirect here. For other uses, see Informer (disambiguation) and Stool pigeon (disambiguation). For the film, see Confidential Informant (film).
An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a "snitch", "rat", "canary", "stool pigeon", "stoolie", "tout" or "grass", among other terms)[1] is a person who provides privileged information, or (usually damaging) information intended to be intimate, concealed, or secret, about a person or organization to an agency, often a government or law enforcement agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informants are officially known as confidential human sources (CHS), or criminal informants (CI). It can also refer pejoratively to someone who supplies information without the consent of the involved parties.[2] The term is commonly used in politics, industry, entertainment, and academia.[3][4]
A representative from the U.S. State Department congratulates and offers a partial payment to a fully disguised informant whose information led to the neutralization of a terrorist in the Philippines
Two-page totally confidential, direct and immediate letter from the Iranian Minister of Finance to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Hossein Fatemi) about creating a foreign information network for controlling smuggling, 15 December 1952
Look up informant or stool pigeon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
In the United States, a confidential informant or "CI" is "any individual who provides useful and credible information to a law enforcement agency regarding felonious criminal activities and from whom the agency expects or intends to obtain additional useful and credible information regarding such activities in the future".[5]
Criminal informants
edit
Informants are extremely common in every-day police work, including homicide and narcotics investigations. Any citizen who provides crime-related information to law enforcement by definition is an informant.[6]
Law enforcement and intelligence agencies may face criticism regarding their conduct towards informants. Informants may be shown leniency for their own crimes in exchange for information, or simply turn out to be dishonest in their information, resulting in the time and money spent acquiring them being wasted.
Informants are often regarded as traitors by their former criminal associates. Whatever the nature of a group, it is likely to feel strong hostility toward any known informers, regard them as threats and inflict punishments ranging from social ostracism through physical abuse and/or death. Informers are therefore generally protected, either by being segregated while in prison or, if they are not incarcerated, relocated under a new identity.
Informant motivation
edit
FBI Anchorage aid for assessing confidential human sources
Informants, and especially criminal informants, can be motivated by many reasons. Many informants are not themselves aware of all of their reasons for providing information, but nonetheless do so. Many informants provide information while under stress, duress, emotion and other life factors that can affect the accuracy or veracity of information provided.
Law enforcement officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers, judges and others should be aware of possible motivations so that they can properly approach, assess and verify informants' information.
Generally, informants' motivations can be broken down into self-interest, self-preservation and conscience.
A list of possible motivations includes:
Self-Interest:
Financial reward.[7]
Pre-trial release from custody.
Withdrawal or dismissal of criminal charges.
Reduction of sentence.
Choice of location to serve sentence.
Elimination of rivals or unwanted criminal associates.
Elimination of competitors engaged in criminal activities.
Diversion of suspicion from their own criminal activities.
Revenge.[7]
Desire to become a spy.
Self-Preservation:
Fear of harm from others.
Threat of arrest or charges.
Threat of incarceration.
Desire for witness protection program.
Conscience:
Desire to leave criminal past.
Guilty conscience.
Redemption.
Mutual respect.
Genuine desire to assist law enforcement and society
