Dear Awesome-Person-That-Answers-My-Questions,
Since I know next to zero about police work (despite my dad having been a deputy when I was a kid), I hope someone can answer my questions. I also sincerely hope that I'm not posting inappropriately.
I’m writing a novel (my first actually) and in it I have a vice cop (A Denver one!). What I need to know is about paid informants (well, if there is such a thing). I guess I’ll just list my questions so you can, hopefully, answer them easily without me taking up too much of your time. Let me also thank you in advance! (and beg a little too. Please be able to answer! LOL).
I guess where this comes from mainly is The Shield and how he the main character had a paid informant. That’d work really well for my novel, I just don’t know if it’s realistic.
1) Is there such a thing as a paid informant who has to produce a certain amount of leads? (I mean get paid on a regular basis for good information as opposed to percentages of busts?) More specifically, are there paid informants who are not offering leads based on getting sentence reduction? (i.e. do they volunteer information?)
2) Do these informants get put into the system under a special code so if they’re arrested, injured or killed the officer in charge of them gets notified? (And if so how does that remain confidential? A special computer ding? An internal memo sent to the cop? etc)
3) And last question, who would handle the murder of that informant? Randomly assigned detectives on rotation? Or the police officer in charge of that informant?
I’m presuming a lot here and I may even be wrong in my presumptions. For instance maybe the informant would report to a specific division chief, like Andy Sipowicz , instead of a specific officer? Or maybe there’s just no such thing as an informant like what I’m thinking? Or maybe they just all work on contingency fees?
I would appreciate any help you could give and information you’re willing to part with that won’t put anyone at risk. I would offer cookies or cakes in return, but I guess bribing an officer is big no no (and I live in Sweden so by the time cake arrived, I might be arrested for attempting send deadly-stale cake-weapons. Although I could send pictures of me eating the cake so you’d know at one point it was moist and delicious…? But then you wouldn’t have any cake at all – not even a stale one.)
Thanks, again, profusely.
PS: If you know Andy Sipowicz, can I have his email? I have lots of other questions… And it has nothing to do with my fat, bald, police detective fetish. Honest. No, really.
Since I know next to zero about police work (despite my dad having been a deputy when I was a kid), I hope someone can answer my questions. I also sincerely hope that I'm not posting inappropriately.

I’m writing a novel (my first actually) and in it I have a vice cop (A Denver one!). What I need to know is about paid informants (well, if there is such a thing). I guess I’ll just list my questions so you can, hopefully, answer them easily without me taking up too much of your time. Let me also thank you in advance! (and beg a little too. Please be able to answer! LOL).
I guess where this comes from mainly is The Shield and how he the main character had a paid informant. That’d work really well for my novel, I just don’t know if it’s realistic.
1) Is there such a thing as a paid informant who has to produce a certain amount of leads? (I mean get paid on a regular basis for good information as opposed to percentages of busts?) More specifically, are there paid informants who are not offering leads based on getting sentence reduction? (i.e. do they volunteer information?)
2) Do these informants get put into the system under a special code so if they’re arrested, injured or killed the officer in charge of them gets notified? (And if so how does that remain confidential? A special computer ding? An internal memo sent to the cop? etc)
3) And last question, who would handle the murder of that informant? Randomly assigned detectives on rotation? Or the police officer in charge of that informant?
I’m presuming a lot here and I may even be wrong in my presumptions. For instance maybe the informant would report to a specific division chief, like Andy Sipowicz , instead of a specific officer? Or maybe there’s just no such thing as an informant like what I’m thinking? Or maybe they just all work on contingency fees?
I would appreciate any help you could give and information you’re willing to part with that won’t put anyone at risk. I would offer cookies or cakes in return, but I guess bribing an officer is big no no (and I live in Sweden so by the time cake arrived, I might be arrested for attempting send deadly-stale cake-weapons. Although I could send pictures of me eating the cake so you’d know at one point it was moist and delicious…? But then you wouldn’t have any cake at all – not even a stale one.)
Thanks, again, profusely.
PS: If you know Andy Sipowicz, can I have his email? I have lots of other questions… And it has nothing to do with my fat, bald, police detective fetish. Honest. No, really.
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