Informant

This article is about a person who provides privileged information. For other uses, seeInformant (disambiguation).

"Informer" and "Stool pigeon" redirect here. For other uses, seeInformer (disambiguation)andStool pigeon (disambiguation).

"Confidential Informant" redirects here. For the film, seeConfidential Informant (film).

A representative from theU.S. State Departmentcongratulates and offers a partial payment to a fully disguised informant whose information led to the neutralization of aterrorist 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

Aninformant(also called aninformeror, as aslangterm, a "snitch","rat","canary","stool pigeon","stoolie"or"grass",among other terms)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 asconfidential human sources(CHS), orcriminal informants(CI). It can also refer pejoratively to someone who supplies information without the consent of the involved parties.The term is commonly used in politics, industry, entertainment, and academia.

In theUnited States,a confidential informant or "CI" is "any individual who provides useful and credible information to alaw enforcement agencyregarding felonious criminal activities and from whom the agency expects or intends to obtain additional useful and credible information regarding such activities in the future ".

Criminal informants

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.

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 astraitorsby 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 inprisonor, if they are not incarcerated, relocated under a new identity.

Informant motivation

FBIAnchorageaid 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Labor and social movements

Corporations and the detective agencies that sometimes represent them have historically hiredlabor spiesto monitor or control labor organizations and their activities.Such individuals may be professionals or recruits from the workforce. They may be willing accomplices, or may be tricked into informing on their co-workers' unionization efforts.

Paid informants have often been used by authorities within politically and socially oriented movements to weaken, destabilize and ultimately break them.

Politics

A redacted version of the FBI policy manual concerning the use of informants

Informers alert authorities regarding government officials that are corrupt. Officials may be takingbribesor be participants in amoney loopalso called akickback.Informers in some countries receive a percentage of all money recovered by their government.

Theancient RomanhistorianLactantiusdescribed a judiciary case which involved the prosecution of a woman suspected to have advised another woman not to marryMaximinus II:"Neither indeed was there any accuser, until a certainJew,one charged with other offences, was induced, through hope of pardon, to give false evidence against the innocent. The equitable and vigilant magistrate conducted him out of the city under a guard, lest the populace should have stoned him... The Jew was ordered to the torture till he should speak as he had been instructed... The innocent were condemned to die.... Nor was the promise of pardon made good to the feigned adulterer, for he was fixed to a gibbet, and then he disclosed the whole secret contrivance; and with his last breath he protested to all the beholders that the women died innocent. "

Criminal informant schemes have been used as cover for politically motivated intelligence offensives.

Jailhouse informants

Jailhouse informants, who reporthearsay(admissions against penal interest) which they claim to have heard while the accused is inpretrial detention,usually in exchange for sentence reductions or other inducements, have been the focus of particular controversy.Some examples of their use are in connection withStanley Williams,Cameron Todd Willingham,Thomas Silverstein,Marshall "Eddie" Conway,and a suspect in the disappearance ofEtan Patz.TheInnocence Projecthas stated that 15% of all wrongful convictions later exonerated because ofDNAresults were accompanied byfalse testimonyby jailhouse informants. 50% ofmurderconvictions exonerated by DNA were accompanied by false testimony by jailhouse informants.

Terminology and slang

"Narc (Narcotics)" redirects here. For another usage of the phrase "narc", seeDrug addict.

Slangterms for informants include:

• blabbermouth
• cheese eater
• canary – derives from the fact that canaries sing, and "singing" is underworld or street slang for providing information or talking to the police.
• dog –Australianterm. May also refer topolice forceswho specialize in surveillance, or police generally.
• ear – someone who overhears something and tells the authorities.
• fink – this may refer to thePinkertonswho were used asplain-clothesdetectivesandstrike-breakers.
• grassorsupergrass–rhyming slangfor "grasshopper", meaning "copper" or "shopper",having additional associations with the popular songWhispering Grassand the phrase "snake in the grass".
• narc – a member of a specialist anti-narcoticlaw enforcementagency orpolice intelligenceforce.
• nark – this may have come from theRomanitermnakfor "nose" or theFrenchtermnarquois,which means "cunning", "deceitful", and/or "criminal".
• nose
• pentito–Italianterm meaning "one who repents". Originally and most frequently used in reference toMafiainformants,it has also been used to refer to informants forItalian paramilitary and terrorist organizations(such as theRed BrigadesandFront Line),and people who delivered confidential informations to the authorities during the "Maxi Trial"and"Mani pulite"nationwide judiciary investigations.
• pursuivant(archaic)
• rat– informing is commonly referred to as "ratting" inAmerican English.
• snitch– informing is commonly referred to as "snitching", term originally used within theAfrican-American communityand more recently associated withhip hop music,hardcore rap,andtrap,alongside theirderivative subgenresandsubcultures.
• snout
• spotter
• squealer
• stikker–Danishterm meaning "stabber", mainly used in relation toWorld War II.During and after theNazi occupation of Denmark(1940–1945), the word has been used specifically to indicate the Danish whistleblowers, agents, and spies which informed the German secret police, theGestapo,in order to undermine theDanish resistance movement.
• stool pigeon or stoolie
• tell tale or tell-tale
• tattle-tale
• tittle-tattle
• tout–Northern Irishterm for an informant, often one who informed on the activities ofIrish paramilitary organizationsduring "the Troubles".
• trick
• turncoat
• weasel
• X9 - A slang term inBrazil,possibly inspired by the comic stripSecret Agent X-9.

The term "stool pigeon" originates from the antiquated practice of tying apassenger pigeonto a stool. The bird would flap its wings in a futile attempt to escape. The sound of the wings flapping would attract other pigeons to the stool where a large number of birds could be easily killed or captured.

List of notable individuals

• Tim Allen,actor, who was arrested with cocaine and provided the names of other dealers in exchange for a sentence of three to seven years rather than a possible life imprisonment
• Nicky Barnes,head ofThe Council,which he would later testify against
• Whitey Bulger,Boston Irish mob boss
• Nicholas Calabrese,amade manwho testified against theChicago Outfit
• James Carey,Irish terrorist
• Steve Flemmi,Whitey Bulger's partner-in-crime
• Flores twins Pedro and Margarito
• Nicola Gobbo,former Australian barrister who provided information on her own clients
• Sammy Gravano,formerunderbossof theGambino crime family
• Daniel Hernandeza.k.a. Tekashi 6ix9ine, American rapper, whotestifiedagainstNine Trey Gangsters
• Henry Hill,Lucchese crime familyassociate
• Frank Lucas,New York City drug dealer turned informant
• Joseph Massino,the first boss of one of theFive Familiesin New York City toturn state's evidence
• George Orwell,author ofOrwell's list
• Abe Reles,Murder, Inc.hit man
• Freddie Scappaticci,member of theProvisional IRA
• Joseph Valachi,soldier of theGenovese crime family
• Salvatore Vitale,former underboss of theBonanno crime family
• Richard Wershe Jr.(commonly known as "White Boy Rick" ), the youngest FBI informant ever at age 14

By country

Russia and Soviet Union

A system of informants existed in theRussian Empireand was later adopted by theSoviet Union.InRussia,such people were known asosvedomitelordonoschik,and secretly cooperated with law enforcement agencies, such as thesecret-policeforceOkhranaand later the SovietmilitsiyaorKGB.Officially, those informants were referred to as "secret coworker" (Russian:секретный сотрудник,sekretny sotrudnik) and often were referred by the Russian-derivedportmanteauseksot.In some KGB documents has also been used the designation "source of operational information" (Russian:источник оперативной информации,istochnik operativnoi informatsii).

Germany

Main article:Unofficial collaborator

Poland

Main article:pl:Tajny współpracownik

Venezuela

Main articles:Snitch Lawandes:Patriota cooperante

See also

• Agent provocateur
• Aguilar–Spinelli test
• Counter-terrorism
• Covert interrogation
• Denunciation
• Espionage
• Hollywood blacklist
• Pentiti
• Plea bargain
• Turn state's evidence
• United States Marshals Service
• Watergate scandal
• Whistleblower
• Witness Protection Program

External links

Media related toInformantsat Wikimedia Commons

• Federal informants in Chicago gangs