“Rachel’s Law” Protects Police Informants

 

Earlier this fall, the New Yorker profiled Rachel Hoffman, a 23-year-old from Tallahassee, Florida who was arrested for minor drug possession and then coerced by cops into becoming a confidential informant in a sting operation. She was killed by dealers in May 2008. Since then, her parents have been fighting to alert the public to law enforcement’s widespread use of confidential informants (CIs) in order to rack up drug arrests. By some counts, up to 80% of all drug-related arrests in the US involve CIs that were recruited after committing non-violent, usually drug-related offenses. Typically, Rachel Hoffman had been arrested for possession of pot and ecstasy pills. Less typically, she was white: young people of color from lower-income communities are more often pressured into becoming informants. Read More…