Pubdate: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 Source: Commercial Appeal (TN) Copyright: 1999 The Commercial Appeal Contact: Box 334, Memphis, TN 38101 Fax: (901)529-6445 Website: http://www.gomemphis.com/ Author: Rob Johnson Undercover cash is the lubricant that keeps the city's drug investigations working and its network of streetwise informants chatting, a few $20 or $50 conversations at a time. For almost five years, though, those confidential-informant payments poured from the Memphis Police Department Organized Crime Unit, and thousands of dollars' worth have effectively vanished through its porous accounting system. The state's audit of the drug unit found $43,529 went to confidential informants who were ``apparently nonexistent.'' And when auditors tried to match the payments to the required files on each informant, the auditors discovered that ``46 of the CI files referenced did not exist.'' It's not supposed to work that way, according to OCU's current commander, who was installed after the state began its financial investigation. In fact, signing on to be a CI, like most any job, now requires plenty of introductory paperwork, said OCU Insp. Mary Wright. Some informants approach the department on their own; some are sought by the police. Others are tangled up in criminal charges already and try to help themselves by cooperating with police. When someone decides to become an informant, he must first meet with two OCU officers, said Wright. One of the officers will have already compiled a criminal-history sheet on the would-be informant, and when the meeting takes place, the other officer serves as a witness. The informant must sign an agreement with the police. ``It basically says that they won't violate the law while they're working for us; otherwise, they will be arrested and charged,'' said Wright. The informants must also consent to be taped, and they must acknowledge that they can be called to testify in court. Then come several samples of their signatures, including those for any aliases the informant wants to use. Thumbprints are made. Polaroids are taken. Numbers are assigned. And it all goes into a file. And that file is supposed to reflect every payment made to every informant. Money, said Wright, isn't supposed to change hands until the informant's information can be corroborated or until he successfully walks away from a controlled drug buy. ``We search them before they make a buy, and we search them afterward too,'' said Wright. ``It's to make sure they don't walk out - or in - with anything they shouldn't have.'' The confidential-informant funds make it all work, she said. ``That's the way we receive information when we're trying to find the drugs,'' she said. But for five years, that's not the way the system worked, according to the state audit. Not only were 46 files simply not there, but a sample of existing CI files revealed that several didn't contain the necessary fingerprints, photos and Social Security numbers. The auditors urge that an OCU supervisor begin verifying that the cash payments went to actual informants and to document those transactions. Another OCU officer should also periodically trace the CI payments to the corresponding CI files. The department concedes that its procedures were lacking: ``I concur that there is a lack of documentation to support the expenditure of $43,529,'' reads Police Director Bill Oldham's response in the audit. He outlines how the department has instructed its OCU supervisors to verify CI payments, to maintain and secure the files, to find any missing files and to limit file access. Oldham also promises to determine whether any further investigation is needed to recover the thousands in missing money. - --- MAP posted-by: manemez j lovitto