American Civil Liberties Union

September 6, 2008
> Encouraging Developments in the Struggle to Reform America’s Informant System
Preliminary research indicates that up to 80 percent of all drug cases in America may be based on information provided by informants. Informants work for the government, often secretly, to gather and provide information or to testify in exchange for cash or leniency in punishment for their own crimes. In many courts across the nation, all it takes is the uncorroborated word of an informant to charge someone with a crime.  Read more>>

July 11, 2008
> Federal Court Rules Strip Search of 13-Year-Old Student for Ibuprofen Unconstitutional
SAN FRANCISCO – The American Civil Liberties Union applauded a federal appellate court ruling today that school officials violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old Arizona girl when they strip searched her based on a classmate’s uncorroborated accusation that she possessed ibuprofen.  Read more>>

March 3, 2008
> Strip-Searched for Advil
We have a new twist on informant-related scandals to report today that involves using students as snitches and the bad things that happen to good people as a result.  Read more >>

> ACLU Challenges Unlawful Strip Search Over Ibuprofen Possession in School
SAN FRANCISCO - In legal papers delivered today, the American Civil Liberties Union joined an ongoing case to represent a 13-year-old girl unconstitutionally strip searched by school officials after a classmate’s uncorroborated accusation of ibuprofen possession. A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the search constitutional on September 21, 2007. The panel’s 2-1 decision, which greatly expands the circumstances under which schools may strip search students, will now be reviewed by the full Ninth Circuit.  Read more >>

February 1, 2008
> Frankenstein's Monster and Maple Trees: The Latest Snitch Scandals
The first few months of 2008 have ushered in a steady parade of informant-related scandals that could have been averted if key safeguards and regulations were in place.  Read more >>

January 28, 2008
> Informants: Are They Also a Poison?
Four Brooklyn narcotics officers are caught paying informants with drugs seized from busted dealers.  Read more >>

December 12, 2007
> Snitch: The Book...Club
Check out the play Ethan Brown’s new book Snitch is getting.  Read more >>

December 3, 2007
> Speaking with Forked Tongues
Once again, a steady parade of informant scandals has been making top headlines across the country.  Read more >>

November 17, 2007
> "I Was Trying to Create a Snitch"
A snapshot of the injustices that occur every day in America when known criminals work as informants to do the work police should be doing.  Read more >>

November 7, 2007
> Guess Who Didn't Inhale?
The San Francisco Chronicle told the latest example of our nation's flawed informant system, especially in the context of drug law enforcement.  Read more >>

November 1, 2007
> Today's Top Snitch Story: The Tale of the Grim Reaper
Our government does not appear to be willing to hold their own informants, "snitches" or "cooperators" accountable — even when they take human life. This problem was evident with today's news about the case of Gregory "The Grim Reaper" Scarpa, Sr.  Read more >>

> The Informants Are Watching Us…But Who's Watching the Informants?
Today the ACLU's Drug Policy Reform Project launched the website "Unnecessary Evil," the online component of a new campaign that highlights the systemic problems with today's use of informants in drug law enforcement and the critical solutions needed to address them. Unlike witnesses, informants are motivated by self-advancement. Informants work for the government, often secretly, to gather and provide information or to testify in exchange for cash or leniency in punishment for their own crimes. Preliminary research indicates that up to 80 percent of all drug cases in America may be based on information provided by informants, and yet there currently exist virtually no oversight mechanisms to ensure that informants are telling the truth.  Read more >>

July 19, 2007
> Congress Scrutinizes the Use of Informants in Drug Law Enforcement Following Accidental Shooting of 92-Year-Old Woman
WASHINGTON – The House Judiciary Committee held hearings today to examine the dangers of the informant system as used in drug law enforcement. Today’s hearing was prompted by the tragic death of a 92-year-old Atlanta woman, Kathryn Johnston, who was shot during a botched SWAT raid of her home. The raid was based on information fabricated by police, who falsely attributed the misinformation to a confidential informant. Civil rights advocates and members of Congress called for an overhaul of the informant system, instituting oversight mechanisms and safeguards to prevent future injustices.  Read more >>

USE GOOGLE TO GATHER THE STORIES

Google allows you to build your own free customizable news page that will gather stories, mainly from the United States, that cover the topics of your choosing.

Step 1:  Create a personal Google account

• Go to the Google Homepage at www.google.com
• Click “Sign-in” in the upper right-hand corner of the page
• Click “Create an account now”
  • Enter an email account for your username (it does not have to be a Gmail account)
  • Enter personal password and re-enter
  • Complete “Word Verification”
  • Click “I accept”

Step 2:  Create your custom news page

• Go to the Google Homepage at www.google.com
• Click “News”
• Click “Sign in” in the upper right-hand corner and complete with email and password
• Click “Edit this personalized page”
• Click “Add a custom section”
• Enter the keyword “snitch” and click “add section”
• Click “Add a custom section” again
• Enter the keyword “informant” and click “add section”
• You can remove all of the standard news sections except “Top Stories”:
  • Click on the section that you want to remove
  • Check “Delete section” and then click “Save changes”
• In the “Edit this personalized page” box click “Save layout.”  The search buttons on the left should be updated to reflect your changes.

Step 3:  Read the news

• Go to the Google Homepage at www.google.com
• Click “News”
• Click “Sign in” in the upper right-hand corner and complete with email and password
• Click on the “informant” tab to read the latest news about informants, then click on the “snitch tab to read stories that use that term
• To read the full story, click on the story’s heading
• News articles remain available for a few weeks so you can stay fully informed even if you only have time to read the news every week or so. 

RECEIVE YOUR STORIES BY RSS FEED

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a way to share news headlines and other regular updates like blog entries on the web. Some people like to receive customized news by RSS feed so that all of the stories are in one place and can be reviewed more quickly.

Users of RSS can set a "feed reader" or "aggregator" to check RSS-enabled web pages like the ones below and get automatic displays of new articles or action alerts. Many large and small web sites and blogs offer RSS as a way for readers to stay up to date. Web-based feed readers and news aggregators require no software installation and make the user's "feeds" available on any computer with web access.

To learn more about RSS and how to use it, see the Wikipedia site or "Fine-Tuning Your Filter for Online Information," (from NYTimes.com).

Step 1:  Set up Google Reader

• On your Google News page, click “RSS” on the left side of the screen
• At the top of the page, set the option to “Subscribe to this feed using Google Reader”
• Click “Subscribe Now”
• Click “Add to Google Reader”

Step 2:  Use your favorite RSS feed reader to receive the stories

• Open your favorite RSS feed reader
• Add the Google Reader feed to your other feeds
• Now your Google custom news stories come to you through your RSS reader

THINGS TO LOOK FOR

As you read your informant and snitch stories, here are a few things to look for:

• Screen:  You may not want to read every article that comes up.  Some articles containing the keyword “snitch” may be in the context of entertainment news.  Lots of articles containing the keyword “informant” are basic police-blotter-style stories about cases involving an informant.
   
• Informants committing crimes:  Informants have been known to commit crimes, including murder, while on the government payroll.  Police may even authorize informants to commit crimes while they are working for the government.  Look for information showing the criminal history of informants who are in the news, especially if the seriousness of their own crimes might outweigh the crimes they are helping solve.
   
• Wrongful search or arrest:  Sometimes police act on inaccurate informant tips that lead to wrongful searches, arrests, injuries and even death.  You might find cases where the police know that the informant is unreliable and still act on their tip without corroborating the information.
   
• Unreliable testimony:  Informants might be under pressure to offer false testimony if they have an agreement with the government to “work off” their offense by accusing a specific number of other people of committing crimes.  Sometimes police and informants enter agreements where the informant gets paid for each accusation they make.  
   
• Racial injustice:  News stories might suggest racial injustice, such as when a drug roundup operation occurs in the same neighborhood every year or when prosecutors habitually prosecute drug users as “dealers” in certain communities but not others.  Keep an eye out for stories that show the government treating people unequally in response to similar conduct.
   
• Community mistrust:  Watch for articles describing neighborhoods where residents do not trust the police to protect them.  Look for solutions brought forward by the community.
   
• Research:   Keep an eye out for articles referring to academic research or studies that may be helpful.