I have written extensively on snitches before. Recently, 60 Minutes aired an episode on the problems with cops turning misdemeanor drug offenders into snitches. I encourage you to check it out here: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/confidential-informants-60-minutes-lesley-stahl/.
The problem, in short, is this: cop busts Student with a misdemeanor amount of pot; Student is terrified, and cop lies to Student and tells Student that cop has Student on a felony, and will get Student kicked out of school if Student doesn’t act as a snitch for cop; terrified Student agrees to act as snitch; Student ends up found by lake, shot by drug dealer who discovered a wire on Student; Cop denies Student was working for cop; family led to believe Student was at the lake at 2am to score methamphetamine (due to texts Cop had Student send to buyer soliciting buyer to purchase meth at lake at 2am), end of story.
The bigger problem is that it happens routinely with University of North Texas Police Department officers and University of North Texas Students.
UNT Student is caught with a misdemeanor amount of marijuana. Student has never been arrested before, and is terrified. Investigators for the University of North Texas Police Department tell Student that Student is looking at a felony level offense (they know the amount of pot is a misdemeanor, so they lie to Student.) They tell Student that Student is likely going to prison (another lie.) UNTPD tells Student that if Student will buy some cocaine from a suspected Dealer for them, Student can “work off” Student’s charge, and UNTPD won’t report that they caught Student with a small amount of pot. Student says Student isn’t sure. UNTPD threatens to get Student’s “ass kicked out of school.” Student agrees and works for UNTPD as a snitch. UNTPD keeps no record of who is working for them as a snitch—it’s all “off the books.” (Unless the Student is clever enough to tape record his conversations with police…)
Meaning, no record exists that Student is actually working for the police. Why? The primary reason why no records of snitches are kept by police is that the police don’t want to be blamed for the death of a snitch who gets killed doing the police’s dirty work. Snitches are, frankly speaking, expendable to police. If one gets killed, there are 100 other students who they can bust for low-level drug offenses and transform into snitches.
Consider now, Student, a first-time, low-level offender, is now engaged with players way over his head—he has been setup by the police to buy cocaine off of a known drug dealer, possibly a dealer with violent criminal history and prior prison trips. Student will be required by UNTPD to go to the Dealer’s house or to meet Dealer at a remote location at some ungodly hour. And, if the unthinkable should happen, if Student ends up hurt or killed by Dealer, UNTPD will deny that Student ever worked for them, and will leave Student’s family to believe Student was just an addict looking to score cocaine.
The above is not a guess or speculation; it is fact. I know, for a fact, that UNTPD busts Students who have never been arrested before for misdemeanor possession of marijuana offenses, and asks those same students to work as snitches to “work off the charge.” While merely asking a Student in this situation to work as a snitch is, in my opinion, coercive, dirty, and ruthless, one could argue that the Student could refuse. In such cases where Student refuses, UNTPD simply informs the University that Student has been selling drugs, so that Student faces potential expulsion, to send a message. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the Dean of Students office at the University of North Texas is complicit in making sure the (unfounded, uncharged) “selling” allegation is the subject of a conduct hearing, and risk expulsion. So can the Student ever really refuse?
I have represented a dozen or so people over the past 18 months who have never been arrested before, and were picked up for a misdemeanor drug charge by UNTPD, and have told me that UNTPD (1) lied to them about the severity of the charges; (2) asked them to work as a snitch buying larger quantities of felony controlled substances for UNTPD to “work off” their charge; and (3) threatened to get them kicked out of school if they refused.
Until one of these UNT students who has been arrested for a misdemeanor drug charge and is working for UNTPD as a snitch ends up hurt, or worse, don’t expect anything to change.