
Informers in some countries receive a percentage of all monies recovered by their government. Officials may be taking bribes or be participants in a money loop also called a kickback. Informers alert authorities regarding government officials that are corrupt.

#CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANT MANUAL#
Politics Ī redacted version of the FBI policy manual concerning the use of informants Paid informants have often been used by authorities within politically and socially oriented movements to weaken, destabilize and ultimately break them. They may be willing accomplices, or may be tricked into informing on their co-workers' unionization efforts. Such individuals may be professionals or recruits from the workforce. Ĭorporations and the detective agencies that sometimes represent them have historically hired labor spies to monitor or control labor organizations and their activities.

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. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies may face criticism regarding their conduct towards informants. Any citizen who provides crime related information to law enforcement by definition is an informant. Informants are extremely common in every-day police work, including homicide and narcotics investigations.
