Ethical Issues in Law Enforcement: Confidential Informants and Police Conduct
Story Summary
The use of confidential informants in law enforcement is not uncommon. In Rubee Sandoval’s story, an informant was used against her. In 2017, a woman was arrested for dealing hard drugs. Law enforcement officers came to her home with a search warrant based on a tip from a confidential informant who claimed to have seen a stash of methamphetamine.
The drugs were found during the search, and the woman was arrested — but Rubee did not admit to dealing in the drugs, claiming that she was using them for personal consumption during a difficult time. The box of methamphetamine had been given to her by a friend who had asked to keep it.
Professional Ethics Applied to the Story
From a professional ethics perspective, this story has several nuances that are at odds with ethical principles. Any informant must be credible; it is unknown how experienced the informant was or whether they had a story of credible tips. It is not enough for law enforcement to search based on the informant’s testimony alone; there must be probable cause to search. Furthermore, fairness is an ethical principle — if the defendant says the drugs did not belong to her, the police should have conducted a further search. Hence, this story contains at least three contradictions in police ethics.
This case centers on the arrest of members of the anti-government group planning to kidnap the governor of Michigan in 2020. Several FBI agents were infiltrated into the group as undercover informants to provide more accurate and proactive intelligence and provide the agency with information about the impending attack (Chakraborty, 2021).
The conflict is that the informants were much more involved in the planning than they should have been — they organized extremist meetings and paid the bills. The extensive use of informants and their assignment to the role of extremists raises serious ethical questions about the propriety of such actions, namely, whether FBI agents may have been involved in criminal planning.
Questions arise about fairness as an ethical principle, as it is unclear whether it is fair to pay the bills and arrange meetings of extremist groups for public and political security. Given their underlying role in the military group, one might question the extent to which the safety of confidential informants was respected. There is a breach of professional ethics, even if the criminals were not ultimately caught without the informants’ involvement.
References
Chakraborty, B. (2021). FBI informants had a bigger role in Whitmer kidnap plot than thought: Report. Web.
Raziq, D., & Gerber, T. (2022). Watch: “‘A necessary evil’: The cost of confidential informants,” a KSAT 12 Defenders investigation. Web.