Undercover Operations Flashcards
4 types of undercover operations:
1) impromptu
2) short term
3) long term
4) penetration
impromptu assignment:
- shallow undercover role
ex: posing as a tourist
short term assignment:
- short investigation
long term assignment:
- several months
- most common
penetration assignment:
- infiltrates upper echelon of criminal element
- UC removed from LEO activities
- most dangerous
primary objective of UC:
- to obtain info. or evidence unavailable through other investigative techniques
5 phases of a UC operation:
1) planning
2) initiation
3) operational
4) termination
5) evaluation
what factors should you consider when choosing the UC:
- type of illegal activity
- appropriate age, sex, race
- area of the operation
- specialized skills required
- willingness of UC to accept the role
planning phase
- # 1 thing is willingness of UC to accept role
initiation phase
- introduce UC to the team
contact person:
- relays info to and from UC
how to approach suspect:
1) informant introduction
2) chance encounter
3) luring
4) direct approach
the case agent must explain _________ to the informant.
- ENTRAPMENT
informant introduction
- when the informant introduces the UC to the suspect
- informants are difficult to control
chance encounter
- should be well planned
- should appear as a natural event to the suspect
luring
- suspect approaches the UC
- disadvantage: time consuming
direct approach
- LEAST DESIRABLE
termination phase:
- when UC is discovered
- negative results
- safety concerns
evaluation phase:
- post op debrief
- UC prepares for courtroom testimony
what is a criminal defense during UC operations?
- ENTRAPMENT
qualities of an effective UC:
- willingness to accept the role
- confident
- calm
what is backstopping?
- giving UC’s documents to support their background story (id’s licenses, etc)
UC can never engage in malum in se crimes:
- evil crimes like murder, kidnapping, robbery, rape.
