For the informants of police, protection is a far cry from where it should be. More than ever the issue of police informants and the abuse of justice has come to the forefront in the public’s mind. In May 2007, Rachel Hoffman, a twenty-three-year old Florida woman was killed and her body dumped in a nearby ravine after a botched drug operation.
It wasn’t the first time this has happened and there is nothing to say this wont happen again. For the many citizens out there we are not all straight walking and talking, sometimes we do things that are illegal or wrong, but it doesn’t mean we should get any less protection and respect then others. For Rachel she was coerced into this agreement to avoid an extended time in prison, but for her, this meant lose of her life. Questions should be raised as to why this happened, how did the police lose her tail, and how can police put an inexperienced person in the line of duty. That is what a police officer is trained for.
Many officers are said to not feel responsible for the resulting deaths or injury to informants, and for some quite minor crimes, it is so odd that these types of cases are suited for their punishment. A standard of practice needs to be established. A minor drug charge does not equate you to be right for a major drug bust, as does a minor violent crime make you suited for breaking up a gang war. And for these silent deaths, only a few sympathetic thoughts go out to these families. Most officers tend to fall under this guise that if you do the crime then you do the time, and for these dead informants, they were merely doing the time and duty they had to absolve their crimes. Negative. They died doing police work in compromised situations, handling something that would make any new cadet shudder.
For the future of these informants, the next case many be their last, and that cannot be. Tell me otherwise, but I don’t see why how this is appropriate. If you commit an offence and crime you go to jail, house arrest or do community service under supervision. Not the way it is now, putting the lives of family men and women in jeopardy.
jour217 convergence 