
Speaking Truth to Power
Confidential Informants and Police Investigations
University of California Press
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 2. August 2016
Book
Hardback
232 pages
978-0-520-29046-4 (ISBN)
Description
Domestic drug enforcement takes many forms, from the rural patrol officer who happens upon a small-scale mobile "shake and bake" methamphetamine lab during a routine traffic stop, to the city narcotics detective who initiates a low-level buy-bust operation that nets a few hits of crack cocaine on the street corner, to the local, state, and federal agents working in multiagency task forces that coordinate a sting operation that nets thousands of kilos of near-pure cocaine being transported by tractor-trailer. Regardless of the form, there is a high probability that these authorities have exploited access to known offenders and exerted pressure on those individuals to gather inside information on illicit drug sales. These confidential informants provide intelligence on the inner workings of drug operations in exchange for leniency or remuneration, providing a relatively cheap source of intelligence that fuels much of the ongoing war on drugs. In other instances, law enforcement authorities will reach out to members of the criminal underworld who are willing to provide valuable intelligence in exchange for money.
Despite the central role of informants in contemporary police operations, little is known about the shadowy relationships among law enforcement, snitches, and offenders. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the narcotics, homicide, and street-level vice operations in two major metropolitan police departments, Speaking Truth to Power takes readers to the front lines of the war on drugs to unravel this complex web of information exchange.
Despite the central role of informants in contemporary police operations, little is known about the shadowy relationships among law enforcement, snitches, and offenders. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the narcotics, homicide, and street-level vice operations in two major metropolitan police departments, Speaking Truth to Power takes readers to the front lines of the war on drugs to unravel this complex web of information exchange.
Reviews / Votes
"An excellent work that earns its rightful place alongside other scholarly CI literature... well-written and extends the theoretical literature on CIs." * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books * "The text includes a succinct review of both applied and scholarly literature that describes some historical precedent to the use of civilian informants as a source of information." * Theory in Action *More details
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
3 Charts
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-29046-4 (9780520290464)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Dean A. Dabney | Richard Tewksbury
Speaking Truth to Power
Confidential Informants and Police Investigations
E-Book
08/2016
1st Edition
University of California Press
€28.99
Available for download
Persons
Dean A. Dabney is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University. Richard Tewksbury is Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Louisville.
Content
Acknowledgments 1 * Police and Confidential Informants 2 * Study Methods 3 * Types of Informants 4 * Working with Informants 5 * The Game: Th e Impact of Community Context on Informant Use 6 * Maintaining Relationships with Informants 7 * Benefits of Working with Informants 8 * Pitfalls of Working with Informants 9 * Summary and Implications References Index