He was caught shortly after he set the fire as he attempted to flee the scene. Sanchez was arrested for burning a house he had been hired to rehabilitate. In January 2018, I worked on the case of Pedro Sanchez. #1: ResidentsĮvery neighborhood has a person who seemingly never sleeps and knows everything that happens on the street.
Following are six key confidential sources for law enforcement operations. Now, make a plan to engage those residents, business owners and the folks who travel those roadways. Once those areas are identified, take a step back and make note of every residence, business and roadway with a view of that location. It could be the intersection that is known for drug sales, the wooded area where stolen cars are stripped and burned, the local “trap house” or the convenience store that is robbed on a regular basis. In this article, I encourage you to pinpoint the locations in your AOR that are most likely to be a “scene of the crime” in the future. In a previous article, I encouraged you to pinpoint locations that could be potential terrorist targets. Since patrol officers typically do not have the time, resources or authorization to recruit confidential informants and conduct undercover operations, this article will discuss the recruitment of sources in the community. As you evaluate your area of responsibility for future crime scenes, be sure to include retailers that sell products used to manufacture illicit drugs and explosives. Instead of cutting straight to the chase in the “just the facts ma’am” style, they learn to see the big picture and strive to create a network of reliable sources in their area of responsibility (AOR). When an officer adopts this mindset, their interactions change. I recognized every complainant, witness and suspect as a potential source of information.
I quickly discovered my perspective had changed drastically. Unfortunately, patrol officers are not typically trained to elicit intelligence even though they regularly have opportunities to recruit informants and sources.Īfter serving as a detective in a narcotics unit years ago, I returned to the patrol division. This includes techniques for enlisting informants, determining their motivation, protecting their identities, remuneration and validating their information. Police detectives, state investigators and federal agents receive training in informant management. The term “informant” will refer to individuals who are facing criminal charges and are willing to cooperate for a reduction in sentence. For our purposes, the term “source” will be used to describe a person who is not necessarily involved in crime but has access to information or a distinct vantage point that allows them to obtain useful intelligence. Whether called “confidential human sources,” “assets” or some other colorful term, confidential informants are vital to preventing and solving crimes. Every cop worth their salt knows the value of informants.