Undercover Officer Training

Why Does Undercover Work?
Law Enforcement managers would have a less stressful job if their subordinates never worked undercover. However, many modern criminal activities are only vulnerable to this investigative technique. These include organized crime gangs, financial crimes, narcotics, firearms and terrorism. Relatively unused before the 1960s, the undercover investigative technique is widely used today with excellent results.

Undercover operations can gather intelligence that would otherwise go unknown. Your objective may be to find out what kinds of criminal activity are taking place in your jurisdiction, to plan the use of resources or to try to keep a jump ahead of criminal patterns. Most often, of course, undercover operations are used to gather evidence on specific crimes, to thwart criminals who may be planning a crime and to facilitate the making of arrests and seizures.

The vast majority of police undercover investigations in the United States today involve organized gangs involved criminal narcotics activity. Our Founders have worked undercover against hundreds of drug dealers and leaders of both Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, while posing as either money launderers, transporters or traffickers. They have done undercover work on National and International terrorism cases as well as National Security investigations.  Our Founders have also worked undercover against Russian and Asian organized crime groups. During our training classes, we will focus on those cases. Undercover operations are the likeliest to involve injuries or deaths. So, while undercover operations are very useful law enforcement tools, their inherent risks make it imperative that we do our utmost to protect our undercover officers from the perils associated with the assignment, and our best defense is training by instructors that actually worked undercover.

Who Should Work Undercover?
If our objective is to perform undercover operations effectively and safely, then we must give careful attention to the choice of officers selected to work undercover. It is not enough that the undercover investigation gathers evidence or causes prosecutions. The operation is a success only if all the officers survive to go home to their families. The selection of the proper undercover officers has a lot to do with the overall safety of the investigation. What we have learned in this business--not always the easy way--is that the proper selection of undercover officers and proper training increase the chances for a successful prosecution and increase the chances for a safe outcome.

The traits desired for a good undercover officer are not much different from those of any good investigator; they are just more critical. The candidate should be a good overall law enforcement officer and a good investigator. An officer who has not proven him or herself to be a solid performer as a street cop will not likely do well undercover and could be more at risk.

Only volunteers should be considered for undercover assignments. Officers should never be forced to work undercover nor should it be an element necessary for advancement or good performance evaluations. In fact, management should attempt to dissuade the feeling that you are not a complete investigator until you have worked undercover. Time and time again it is the officer who feels pressured to work undercover that puts him or herself at risk.

Most experienced Law Enforcement managers feel that undercover assignments should be given to officers who have at least three years of police experience and some investigative background. Those officers have the law enforcement skills necessary to make an undercover assignment safe and productive. Some police departments, however, still select officers from recruit classes to work undercover; and although there are benefits to this practice, the risks far outweigh the advantages. Recruits have not been properly trained and as such have yet mastered the skills necessary to perform safely in undercover assignments. PCI provides the skills, training and hands on instruction that has been used in over 26 years of successful undercover operations.  

Potential undercover officers need to be able to follow instructions and be able to communicate regularly with their chain of command, but at the same time maintain their cover. PCI trains the undercover officer and his / her department to do this in the safest and most control situation known to law enforcement. It is one thing to have an officer who is a little independent working on the street or in an investigative unit, but quite another when he or she is working undercover. Working undercover exposes an officer to situations where they are separated from other officers and managers for periods of time.

Placing an officer who is under trained or an under-communicator into that situation is dangerous. One of the tricks to being safe while working undercover is for the entire law enforcement team to be alert for signals that something has changed or altered the chances for a safe conclusion to the operation. When an undercover officer fails to make his/her teammates aware of every nuance about the assignment something could be overlooked that has a bearing on the safety of the operation. Also, if management needs to change the direction of an undercover operation or needs to make rules concerning the operation, the undercover officer must be relied upon to follow those directives. Failure to do so could put him or her at risk. The role of an undercover Control Officer is essential in monitoring the undercover officer's well-being and cannot be overstated.

Now that we know the makeup of the perfect and safe undercover officer, reality sets in -- the perfect officer does not exist. However, using the foregoing criteria when you make your selection will help make your undercover operations safer and more productive. How Can We Prepare for a Safe Undercover Operation? The answer is simple and you have it right in front of you.

Retain Our Founders and the PCI team.

You should never put undercover officers in undercover roles without training. We would certainly not put recruits in a patrol car on the street without training. We would be placing them and our department in jeopardy. So it goes for undercover work. The best formal training programs for undercover officers are available at PCI. You should make every effort to have current and prospective undercover officers trained and attend PCI classes.

Planning for an undercover operation need to be taught; and although there is no substitute for hands on in the field training; an officer must be taught by experienced undercover operatives before he / she is placed in the field.

PCI will teach and show the undercover officer how an operational plan must be written that incorporates all the plans and decisions made about the operation. This is an extremely important tool for undercover operations. An operational plan is an absolute requirement for safe undercover operations. The plan should be in a format agreed upon by management. It should be clearly written and distributed so that everyone involved has a copy. Numerous examples of operational plans are available. The style is not important, but using them routinely is important. The plan should contain a minimum of the following information:

• Case Number
• Date, time, and place of operation
• Undercover officer(s)
• Suspects -- with identifying data (attach photos if possible)
• Surveillance officers with assignments
• Street supervisor
• Office supervisor
• Control Officer
• Vehicle descriptions with license numbers
• Flash roll involvement
• Radio call signs of officers
• All pertinent phone numbers
• Brief narrative of what is expected to happen
• Emergency signals to be used by undercover officers
• Location of nearest emergency medical care

The importance of an operational plan cannot be overstated. This tool alone can make any undercover operation safer. It keeps everyone focused on what they are doing and reduces dangerous unplanned changes to the operation. An ancillary benefit is that undercover operations that use an operational plan tend to be more productive. Operations that have an objective and a structured plan tend to go better. Undercover officers who stick to a plan are seen by the crooks as more in control and more often get their way