New Zealand News - NZ - Pressure for undercover cops review

Undercover cops under pressure

When the police do their job properly, real criminals who leave trails of evidence are apprehended and taken out of society. That is a good thing insofar as the rest of us are concerned.

But when the Police fail to do their job we are jepordised by the results. Innocent people emerge from long jail sentences with something to prove and sometimes show how they were locked up on bad evidence.

It is disturbing and ugly for most citizens to learn that the police are not immune to expeditious behaviour, those wanting the glamour of a big arrest, or fearful under cover agents may lose track of the truth in order to get major league criminals behind bars giving defence council the perfect ammo to invalidate the months of work detecting evidence of criminal activity.

Lying gives the cops a bad name. Undercover workers are not immune to corruption. Defence lawyers are there to find the chinks in the armour. That they exist is logical enough. Those that work undercover are necessarily exposed to forces that corrupt. But when intelligence is wrong, and an undercover is installed with no possibility of genuine result injustice may be promoted as pressure to finalise the costs of such operations and lay charges builds.