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New legislation will affect how confidential informants are managed in Washington State

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“As providers of the world’s leading software solution for confidential informant management we like to keep all our customers and potential customers informed of the latest developments in this arena, so sharing our unique expertise with the law enforcement community. In his latest blog John Buckley provides insight on new legislation being introduced in Washington State.

Following the murder of a confidential informant Jeremy McLean

http://tdn.com/news/local/death-of-an-informant-part/article_a181988c-4660-11e2-9be7-0019bb2963f4.html 

Washington Senator Adam Kline has introduced a new bill (5373) in the State Senate that will dictate how informants are to be managed in the future.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2013-14/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Bills/5373.pdf

Many of the key elements of the proposed Bill can be found in similar legislation known as Rachel’s Law that has already been enacted in Florida following the death of another confidential informant Rachel Hoffman.  The legislation is likely to have a major impact on the interactions between law enforcement and potential confidential informants.  Agencies managing confidential informants are likely to notice a sharp increase in the records they are expected to keep and the amount of supervision that cases will require. Having said that agencies have little to be concerned about provided they are proactive in addressing the legislative requirements.

The following may help those responsible for managing confidential informants within their agency to be prepared for the changes that such legislation may bring.

  1. It is a good time for agencies to come together and consider setting up state-wide procedures for managing confidential informants. State-wide procedures create a much more robust regime and enable joint task forces to work together much more effectively and with significantly reduced conflict.
  2. Developing a more proactive approach to using confidential informants will increase the amount of intelligence that an agency obtains from its authorized confidential informants. Each agency should have a centralized register of all the confidential informants being used and the capability to task them against specific investigations. Such an approach is fundamental to the concept of intelligence led policing.
  3. With the advent of new rules and regulations it is a good time for house-keeping. The worth of every existing confidential informant should be evaluated and all re registered/authorized under the new regime. It is often surprising what such a review process turns up!
  4. Training is an essential part of managing confidential informants and no officer should be allowed to manage an informant without being trained to recognized standards. Lack of officer training is one of the main reasons that leads to the death of confidential informants. The setting of state-wide standards for training is hard to argue against.

While law enforcement has nothing to fear from legislation dictating how confidential informants should be managed, they do need to keep a close eye on the content of the legislation. Officers working on a regular basis with confidential informants will often see issues that the legislatures are totally unaware of.

For those readers outside the state of Washington now is a good time to take cognizance of the legislation in Washington and Florida, and make sure your own house is in order. These states are setting the standards that citizens expect of law enforcement and it is only a matter of time until you are facing similar legislation.

John regularly advises ABM in relation to the development of abmpegasus software for managing confidential informants. He has written two books on managing confidential informants and is an internationally recognized expert on confidential informant management. His latest title, Managing Intelligence; A Guide for Law Enforcement Professionals, will be published in June and deals with the structures necessary for an agency to have an effective intelligence system.

abmpegasus is a modular piece of expert-led software that helps law enforcement agencies and police manage confidential informants, intelligence and covert operations in accordance with best practice, policy and legislation.

If you would like more information on the abmpegasus confidential informant management software please contact Dawn Starling on dawn.starling@abmsoftware.com  t: +1 703-326-1366 or complete an ABM Software contact form and a member of our team will get in touch.

If you would like advice or further information on confidential informant  related matters please to contact John at john.buckley@abmsoftware.com or contact +1 703-326-1366

Crimestoppers experiences 700% increase in calls following London riots

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Following the civil disturbances in London during August, Crimestoppers received over 2,500 actionable calls after CCTV images were released of various offenders. In conversation with the Head of Operations at Crimestoppers, I was pleased to hear that abmpegasus Information In Confidence played an important part in Crimestoppers’ activity during that period. The abmpegasus system was implemented at Crimestoppers to provide a more reliable and resilient system for securely managing confidential information. The riots could not have been predicted then, but the decision to upgrade their systems certainly paid off – despite a 700% increase in calls and 40% increase in users of the abmpegasus system, it continued to provide a reliable service, ensuring the security and confidentiality of information provided by members of the public.

Read more about how abmpegasus supported Crimestoppers during the riots.

Intellectual Property Crime Report 2010-2011

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The Intellectual Property Office has published its annual IP Crime report, showing that the sale and distribution of counterfeit and pirated goods over the internet has increased over the last year. It cites a number of major counterfeiting cases including an £11m confiscation order secured by Enfield Trading Standards in May 2010 and the jailing of six men who used high-tech equipment to produce 24 fake bottles of vodka a minute.

The report highlights that counterfeiting is a continuing problem for brands in a wide variety of industries and that much more needs to be done to prevent the production, import and sale of counterfeit goods.

Louis Vuitton and Burberry awarded $2.5m (CAD) for copyright infringement

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Louis Vuitton and Burberry, the two well known luxury fashion brands, have been awarded a total of CAD $2.5m in the Federal Court of Canada following their successful action against three companies that had been manufacturing and selling counterfeit designer handbags in Canada.

Valerie Sonnier, Global Intellectual Property Director for Louis Vuitton said, “This is a landmark award and decisive victory for Louis Vuitton. We are pleased that the Federal Court in Canada recognizes the importance of protecting intellectual property, and awarding high compensatory damages as well as full punitive and exemplary damages as a strong punishment and an equally strong deterrent against counterfeiting and infringing activity. This decision also serves to highlight the need to make trade-mark counterfeiting a crime in Canada and grant Customs in Canada much needed ex officio authority to seize counterfeit goods at the border. We hope this decision will send a message to counterfeiters the world over that Louis Vuitton will aggressively implement its zero tolerance policy against counterfeiting.”

You can read the full press release at BusinessWire

Memorial vigil for Rachel Hoffman

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Marking three years since the death of her daughter, Margie Weiss will be leading a memorial vigil in Tallahassee today to commemorate the life of Rachel Hoffman. The 23-year-old university graduate was murdered on 7th May, 2008 following a botched drug operation in which she was acting as a confidential informant. Since then, new legislation has been introduced in Florida to improve the management of confidential informants. Read more about Rachel’s Law.

37,000 litres of illicit fuel seized by Customs

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HM Revenue and Customs have busted an industrial scale fuel laundering plant in Northern Ireland. Customs officials and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) seized six large fuel storage tanks, 37,000 litres of illicit fuel and 1,000 litres, as well as associated equipment and 21,000 of toxic waste. It is estimated that the laundering plant could have cost £20 million in lost tax revenue per year. By taking red diesel for agricultural use and chemically removing the government marker, the perpetrators can sell the laundered fuel at a lower price, avoiding the petrol tax.

Counterfeiting of designer sunglasses and handbags is a well understood problem, but the dangers of buying laundered fuel can be significant. HMRC have clearly done well to shut down this particular operation.

61 percent of pharmaceutical professionals believe 2011 will be the worst year yet for counterfeit medicines

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A survey by Pharma IQ of 1000 pharmaceuticals anti-counterfeiting professionals has found that most expect counterfeiting activity to grow in 2011.  Chinese counterfeiters and internet distribution are identified as major causes of the problem. Anti-counterfeiting professionals will be looking increasingly for new and improved ways to tackle counterfeiters and their dodgy products.