Friend,
11 10 96 Electronic Telegraph runs a newsstory headlined:
Revealed: the children paid as informers
The story reports:
(1) POLICE forces in Britain are secretly paying chil-
dren and juvenile offenders to act as informants,
often without telling their parents.
(2) ...the revelations...are contained in a Government-
backed survey of 75 informant "handlers" from 12
police forces.
(3) ...more than 80 per cent of officers interviewed
admitted having used a juvenile informant.
(4) Most of the children are giving information behind
their parents' backs....
(5) Children under 17 are responsible for about a quar-
ter of all detected crime.
(6) Schoolchildren as young as 13 are paid up to 300
[pounds] a time for providing information....
Mike Thomas, of the National Association of Youth Justice:
"And if youngsters are being given financial incentives,
how do you know they are telling the truth?" Cordially,
Jim
NOTE. The newsstory's URL:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et/access?ac=111543725877&pg=/ /96/11/10/ncops10.html