Part 5 Police Officers Survival Guide.

Snitches, liars and intelligence gathering.

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Information and intelligence is the life blood of the Police service, without it we are a ship without a rudder that drifts aimlessly until it crashes on the rocks and sinks. So, every opportunity to feed the machine must be taken. By now I hope you have understood how important it is to know your area and to know who is a threat to you and the community. Intelligence comes in many forms and from many different sources, it may be raw human intelligence from a source or community contact. Or it can be gained through lawful use of the internet and open source searches that identify an offender at the scene of a crime. But as a police Officer on patrol you will see and encounter things that you believe will be of intelligence value on a daily basis. Look for the absence of normal, question everything you see, why are there no drug dealers on a corner you know is usually busy, is there a turf war about to start? Why has one of the local criminals got a broken arm, has he received a punishment beating, or crashed a stolen car?

Start feeling comfortable in speaking with people, learn some conversation starters, don’t always go in hard and start interrogating people like they’re suspects, learn the soft skills. Learn about the commodities that make your community what it is, is it Heroin, Cocaine, Cannabis, MDMA or is it one of the? more exotic mix of chemicals that destroys lives and communities? If you know your commodities, you will know what to look for, smell for and you will see behaviours or signs of those drugs being used. Talk to drug users and their families about the local drug scene, the cost, the weights, the availability of such things too, they may even tell you who the local dealers are.

?Get out of your cars and start talking to gangs of youths, you may break down a few barriers and you may be able to build an intelligence picture of who is associating with who. Talk to the lonely old people when you get a chance, they see and hear everything and are usually invisible to most people, they often put the kettle on too.

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Always consider why someone is telling you something, humans will naturally do what is best for them and their motivations will usually be one of the following reasons,

• Revenge, a spurned lover, a hatred for someone.
• Self-preservation, criminals often do more harm to other criminals than they do to general members of the public. A criminal may also inform on their associates to lessen a prison sentence, this is done covertly and a letter or ‘text’ as it is known is handed to the judge before sentencing.
• Protection of a family member or close associate. A parent for example, who sees what their child is getting involved in, parents see and hear everything and are, like old people, thought of as invisible.
• Financial gain, a paid informant or Covert Human Intelligence Source (CHIS). Their motivation is not always greed, it may form any of the other reasons listed but the financial gain is a bonus for them. I have known parents who were CHIS take the money to pay for their kids school uniforms and shoes, this is not greed, it is a level of survival many people in the Police do not understand.
• A sense of injustice, they have been wronged, they were a victim of crime, maybe the police did their best and the source wants to help them with other matters as they’re sick of the crime in their community.
• Rid themselves of competition, a drug dealer perhaps.
• A strong sense of community responsibility, a lot of information comes from good people in the community, they may run a project or help look after the children of drug users at a centre. Be careful not to over use these people or show them out as sources, they tread a difficult line and need to maintain the trust of those they service.
• Theological differences within a community and the hatred of radicalisation that promotes terrorism and violence.

I am sure you may be able to name many other reasons why people will inform on each other, but these are a good starting point. When you have gathered this information you will have to consider a few things,

• What to do with it, will you act on it there and then? If you’re considering this, always consider the safety of your source. Are they the only person who knows this information, will you acting on it compromise them and put them at risk? Consider why they have given you this information, is it malicious, are they using you to do their dirty work? When dealing with informants always remember that ‘The dog wags the tail, the tail doesn’t wag the dog,’ You are in control of that situation not them, you are the dog. If you feel like they’re starting to give you jobs to do or they are pressuring you to act on the information, cut them loose and submit an intelligence log about your concerns.
• Or will you pass it into the system and let it go through the process of information being turned into intelligence? To do this it will have to be inputted into the force computer system. It will need to be graded as to its quality and its provenance, so if it is listed as anonymous and believed to be malicious for example, it will receive a lower grading.
• If you use the same source of information and record it on the systems more than 3 times in a short period of time, it will trigger a notification and you may be approached to ensure that you are not running a source and tasking them to collect intelligence for you. Tasking of sources is conducted by a Dedicated Source Handling Unit (DSHU), They have to have authorities and safeguards in place to protect the source and the organisation against abuse.
• Always protect your sources and do not tell people on your team who your sources are, they will gossip and there are corrupt officers who will use that information for their own gain. You may end up handing your source over to a CHIS handler from the DSHU, you may not even know it, the CHIS handler may have seen your intelligence report and they may have made an approach and recruited them as a registered source. If this happens take it as a compliment and move on and find another source, they now belong to the DSHU and you will be putting them at risk if you continue to debrief them for intelligence.

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What is a CHIS?

A covert human intelligence source (CHIS) is defined as a person who establishes or maintains a personal or other relationship with another person for the covert purpose of facilitating anything that:

i) Covertly uses such a relationship to obtain information or to provide access to any information to another person; or????????

ii) Covertly discloses information obtained by the use of such a relationship or as a consequence of the existence of such a relationship.

In layman’s terms it’s an informant.

Debriefing a CHIS

You may on rare occasions get the opportunity to work with the DSHU, if you get the chance grab it with both hands and make the most of it. If you get selected to join them as a permanent team member your world will be opened up to a life of covert policing, deception and tradecraft that will be used to keep you and the source safe. During my time as a Source Handler I developed a method of debriefing sources that kept the meetings on track and ensured the safety and welfare of all involved. I have utilised the mnemonic CATPRINTS.

C= Cover story, what is it? Ensure you have a believable story as to why you are together at a specific place. Utilise Tradecraft to ensure that the CHIS and Handlers are not being followed to the meeting.

A= Any welfare issues? You are responsible for the welfare of your CHIS, if their life is a mess they will be less effective. You can help them with some of their problems too, signpost them to their GP, marriage counselling, or any agency that can help them. They will thank you for taking an interest in their welfare and because of that they will reciprocate by working harder for you.

T= Time…do have enough? If either party is in a rush then they need to let it be known, if there is insufficient time, reschedule the meeting.

P= Pay, always pay your sources on time and in full, do this early on in the meeting, this will reinforce that you mean business and that they will get paid for any good intelligence that they are about to give you.

R= Revisit Taskings from last meeting, discuss any tasking you gave during the last meeting, ask for and expect updates on the points you tasked. Remember you are the dog and they are the tail that wags. They are paid for intelligence; you are not their cash point.

I= Intelligence requirement, what do you want them to keep an eye out for, this is not a tasking, you may be asking them if they have access to a certain person, group, location, or product such as stolen property, ‘If you hear anything lets us know’ conversation. This may then lead onto a tasking at a later date.

N= New Intelligence from CHIS, has the CHIS come across new information that we were not aware of and they were not tasked to get? Ensure they are getting this intelligence holistically and they are not ‘self-tasking’.

T= Taskings, this is an authorised request to seek out what new intelligence you want the CHIS to actively seek out.

S= Safe route in and out of the meeting, utilise tradecraft to ensure the CHIS and the Handlers are able to attend meetings in safety.

Handling CHIS is one of the best jobs in the Police Service, it does however come with a lot of responsibility. You are responsible for their safety, some CHIS don’t help themselves and can compromise you and put all involved at risk, they will actually tell people that they’re talking to the Police. Some will also appreciate your care for them so much that they will want to split their earnings with you! Don’t do it, explain to them that you are not allowed and that you would face prosecution and lose your job if someone found out. They may reply that ‘no one will know’, well just remember they’re a CHIS, they inform on people for a living, don’t trust them, they will inform on you too!

The Police Officers Survival Guide, available in print,ebook and audiobook too.

https://amzn.eu/d/iaSKUiX

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