Letter to the Editor re: Informants

August 17, 2006 by Maya Harris, The San Francisco Chronicle

Editor -- Thank you for shining a spotlight on the unregulated, underground world of incentivized informants -- individuals paid in kind or in cash for providing information or testimony to law enforcement ("Nightmare informant," Aug. 13). While many view informants as a necessary evil in the fight against crime, few realize that the system may undermine public safety rather than promote it.

Among the benefits received by informants are dismissed charges for crimes committed or police tolerating criminal activity "on the side." This is apparently viewed as a collateral cost of doing business. But the price is often paid by low-income, already crime-ridden, communities of color, where informants are left to roam free even though these communities are in the greatest need of effective police services.

It is a pervasive problem. Informants are used throughout the criminal-justice system, yet they have every reason to lie -- and they do. False informant testimony is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in death-penalty cases.

With informant deals made behind closed doors and inadequate disclosure to the public or the defense, it is predictable that the system produces unreliable, unjust results. The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice is now studying jailhouse informants; their investigation should cover the entire informant system.

MAYA HARRIS
Associate Director

ACLU of Northern California

San Francisco