Covert Police Work

‘An exceptional piece of work which should be widely read.’  - Gary Marx , Emeritus Professor of Criminology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of Undercover: Police Surveillance in America

 ‘Since Gary Marx's seminal work on undercover policing in America, there have been very few successful attempts to document the challenges and dilemmas with evidence and real insight. This work manages to do both and provide a unique window into the complex world of high policing.’ -   Peter Neyroud CBE QPM, Associate Professor in Evidence-based Policing, University of Cambridge

 ‘A highly readable, thought-provoking – and at times controversial – analysis of the issues and dilemmas the use of covert investigatory powers gives rise to. A valuable contribution to the subject, which I commend anyone working or interested in the field to read.’ - Simon McKay , barrister at Simon McKay Chambers, and author of Covert Policing: Law and Practice

This book explores how the police use covert techniques to investigate serious and organized crime. It draws on a two-year ESRC-funded ethnographic study of covert policing in an English police service, focusing on a secretive department known as “Specialist Operations”, whose main function is to conduct prolonged and intrusive investigations into serious and organized crime. The book examines how, and why, the police use of covert resources contains an intrinsic level of risk, which creates a series of dilemmas for practitioners. The book, then, provides a rich description of the bureaucratic and statutory frameworks that guide how the police use covert techniques.  In the final chapter, the book develops a theory of control in covert police work that explains how, and when, this type of police work becomes prone to abuse. The book draws on direct observations of police officers at work, including observation of live operations, and makes an important contribution to the public debate about the function of the police in a democratic society. 

Shane Mac Giollabhuí is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Ulster University, Belfast, in Northern Ireland.