Fully informed? A methodology for assessing covert informant coverage in policing and law enforcement

The use of informants, or Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS), has become a mainstay of contemporary policing in the United Kingdom (UK) as police, security and enforcement agencies seek to tackle a range of crimes. Within such agencies the need to understand the extent to which covert informants can provide information on issues of interest has become essential to effective practice. Drawing upon the principles of social penetration theory, this paper proposes a new methodology that may support police and law enforcement agencies in systematically mapping the breadth and depth of covert informant coverage in policing operations and the wider threat landscape. The future testing of such a methodology in practice will represent a critical area for further development and debate.