Being the Best "Bad Guy" You Can

Guest blogger Jay Fleming of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition points out a painful unintended consequence for police officers who do undercover work: Undercover is being the best bad guy you can. As an undercover officer your job is to be the best bad guy you can, to make people believe you’re a criminal. If you’re good they not only think that you’re a drug dealer, nothing anyone can say will convince them otherwise. Working undercover, you meet many people, sometimes hundreds of people in multiple cities on long-tern operations. You end up making cases, and arresting only a small percentage of the people you contact. The people you arrest know you’re a cop and not a drug dealer. The problem is, no one goes around and contacts the hundreds of other people who are sure you’re a drug dealer and criminal, no one tells them your really a cop, and not a bad guy. This can lead to whispers years later by people who still think you were, or are a drug dealer. Even when you try to explain to someone, you were really working undercover. Even if they believe the “I was really undercover” story, they always have that question in their mind that you were a really a criminal or a crooked cop. E. Jay Fleming Speaker Law Enforcement Against Prohibition [email protected] [8] Mohave Valley, AZ www.leap.cc [9] LEAP Introduction Video http://www.leap.cc/audiovideo/LEAPpromo.htm [10]