Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 2009
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Copyright: 2009 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.philly.com/inquirer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340
Authors: Andrew Maykuth and Joseph A. Slobodzian, Inquirer Staff Writers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?246 (Policing - United States - News)

POLICE DEPARTMENT'S RELIANCE ON INFORMANTS HAS RISKS

The Philadelphia Police Department is heavily dependent upon 
informants to build cases against drug dealers, a reliance whose 
risks are painfully apparent as a probe expands into the conduct of 
its undercover narcotics unit.

Officer Jeffrey Cujdik, whose soured relationship with a confidential 
informant triggered a federal-local investigation into the Narcotics 
Field Unit, employed informants to justify 95 percent of his drug 
searches in the last three years, records show.

An Inquirer analysis of 186 search warrants that Cujdik was granted 
since 2006 shows that the officer cited confidential informants in 
nearly all his cases. None listed an undercover drug buy that he 
personally made, and only one listed a buy by another officer.

Rather, confidential informants - often drug dealers themselves who 
work for cash or leniency - did most of the transactions.

Philadelphia's practices are similar to those of other big-city 
forces, according to several studies.

Deputy Police Commissioner William C. Blackburn, who oversees the 
Narcotics Unit as the head of major operations, said there was a 
reason for the Philadelphia antidrug force's "heavy reliance" on informants.

"Informants give us an opportunity to get into an area where an 
undercover police officer wouldn't be able to go," he said in an 
interview last month.

Cujdik's relationship with one informant has shown the weakness of the system.

Investigators began to pursue Cujdik (pronounced CHUH-dik) last year 
after his most productive informant, Ventura Martinez, alleged that 
the officer had repeatedly fabricated evidence to obtain warrants. In 
January, Cujdik was put on desk duty and ordered to turn in his service weapon.

According to sources, FBI and Internal Affairs investigators are now 
looking at Cujdik's work with at least four informants, and suspicion 
has spread to other members of his squad. Philadelphia's public 
defender has sought to overturn 53 convictions allegedly based on 
tainted searches.

According to Cujdik's affidavits, the officer cited Martinez - 
code-named "Confidential Informant 103" - in 43 percent of his 186 
search warrants in the last three years. Martinez provided tips to 
Cujdik and made controlled drug buys from the dealers he informed on. 
But Cujdik also trusted Martinez sufficiently that he asked him to 
make drug buys from dealers he had never met.

Often described as a "necessary evil" in narcotics trajectories, 
informants provide investigators with access and security. They allow 
undercover officers to avoid dangerous situations with suspected drug 
dealers. And a productive informant can generate far more cases than 
officers would if they had to infiltrate the drug world themselves.

For all the work they do, informants don't cost much.

Blackburn said the Philadelphia force maintained about 200 active 
informants, who were paid a total of $125,000 last year - slightly 
more than Cujdik's overtime-enhanced salary of $111,800.

Civil libertarians and defense attorneys say informants can encourage 
police to take shortcuts. Even with safeguards, there is little 
external oversight to detect misconduct. Judges rarely question 
whether the informants actually did what the officers say they did.

Even if Martinez is lying - Cujdik's defenders say the informant is 
making it all up - the doubt he has cast is likely to take a 
substantial toll. About 500 cases were thrown out after a 1995 
evidence-faking scandal engulfed the 39th District, and the city paid 
more than $4 million to settle lawsuits.

A bigger casualty may be faith in the force at a time when Police 
Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey has made public trust a cornerstone of 
his crime-fighting effort.

"The investigation is probably going to grow in scope," Ramsey said. 
"We will let the chips fall where they may."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom