With increasing influence of technology for surveillance and spying, age-old system of informers, which used to be the most trusted source of police to gather inputs about blind criminal cases and hardcore criminals for decades, is in its worst phase in the State.
Informers, who used to spy on the criminals for the police, are ignored and their network is in a shattering state. The cops, however, strongly believe that no technology could be alternative to the informers. Though deteriorating condition of the informers’ network also delays cracking of the blind cases, feel a cop, who served as station officer for almost a decade, no serious efforts are visible to perk up the informers who used to be ‘eyes and ears’ of the inspectors, station officers, head constables and constables.
Pathetic condition of the informers’ network has added to the work of the cops posted in fields. They have to work more to crack the difficult cases. When there was a strong network of the informers, the cops used to work out the cases within set deadline. A source in the department said each case requires a special type of informer. In some odd cases, several informers were pressed into service. Station officer or investigating officers used to deploy the informers to gather inputs about the criminals in their areas.
“With the advent of modern technology, cops started banking on mobile surveillance to gather inputs. As a result, the informers stopped getting the meager amount they were given in lieu of gathering inputs. Eventually, the informers’ system became weak,” a source said, revealing that the meager fund was given to them from secret service fund of the police.
He further added that no technology could ever be alternative to the informants since they used to work in a dedicated way and apply their brain. Machines can’t to do that. A cop, who doesn’t wish to be quoted, claimed to have burst several cases with the help of informers when he was posted in the field. Another source in the department claimed that the informers used to have complete knowledge about the area.
They enjoy a strong network in different localities. In several cases, the leads given by the informers resulted into cracking of the case within 24 hours.
The cop expressed resentment over shattering state of the informers. Even senior cops also feel that the network of the informers turned weak as compared to previous years. Inspector General of police (law and Order) Ram Singh Meena said, “Informers’ system is very much in existence. It is pressed into service to crack the blind cases. It is in sound condition.” He, however, accepted that the network became weak as compared to previous years.
Asked status and number of the informers in the State, Meena denied disclosing the figure for the security reason.