How to Detect an Undercover Officer: successful criminals including drug traders know plenty about policing and may even be an experienced law enforcement officer.

What follows is true more often than not true, yet there are always exceptions. Nonetheless, a criminal’s attention to detail is probably one reason she or he is successful. How an undercover officer behaves and dresses when posing as a ghetto thug or high class addict, how they drive their vehicles, the condition of those vehicles, and where and how they live are revealing ‘tells.’ For instance, the clothing of drug addict usually doesn’t fit right because most addicts are constantly losing or gaining weight. By contrast, most undercover officers can’t fake this particular appearance and are dead giveaways; they’ll only appear to be sloppy and carry themselves as though their donning a “street uniform.” As pictured here, when you’re really a righeous guy, even bling bling can’t change you. Scraggly beards that look recently grown also are giveaways. The cars they drive are too well-maintained. A dope addict’s car, for instance, usually has three different brands and different styles of tires, a bunch of fast food and candy wrappers all over the inside, burn marks and ripped seats, and screaming kids in the backseat. The windows of the vehicle are jammed with the fifty-year crud and the ash trays spill over with various brands of cigarettes – filtered and unfiltered.

Officers who attempt to portray someone they’re not often have difficulty changing their body language making them obvious ringers. They are too full of positive thoughts, too active, and too curious. An undercover officer wants to put the bad guy in jail and his or her eyes reveal the story of anticipated success. Often, they wear sunglasses. A junkie, on the other hand, will often blind themselves by not wearing sunglasses even when they should. The eyes of a chronic addict consequently will look sunken, like they haven’t slept in days – and they haven’t. Female offenders (more than male addicts) tend to easily melt or tear, and seem to report their childhood experiences more than talk about their expectations of the future. Photo of real undercover officer exposed - Lynn Watson. Other give-aways include: being too sure about the price of drugs, guns, or anything an undercover officer is seeking, constantly making phone calls during a deal; being too eager to buy; offering sex in exchange for doing business; consuming drugs at the request of the drug trader (as seen in Gollywood’s 21 Jump Street – see trailer here), being too familiar, and being too unfamiliar;  being too agreeable, and being too disagreeable. Other red flags include money, itchy and prickly skin, weapons and weapon handling, and totally - too many questions. Most cops I know work-out and have hard bodies. Junkies and many offenders couldn’t care less. Their focus is to experience the effects of product (drugs) and to get-off from committing a criminally violent act – as often as the opportunity arises. Then, too, female undercover officers tend to wear thick (quality) padded bras, use quality makeup and hygiene products, and care for the appearance of their fingers and toes. The palms of their hands are smooth and their eyes are clear. Finally, the body produces an odor and a “presence” often centered on diet, lifestyle, and health. Most chronic offenders live an unhealthy lifestyle and present a suspect presence and attitude - defensive yet aggressive. Their diet is poor and they are unconcerned with proper hygiene and other physiological issues. Villains and thugs tend to ignore the obvious signs of poor health such as rotting teeth, skin rashes, bruises and abrasions (as result of numerous accidents and their own victimization). In a nutshell - The smell tells.       

To Prevent Undercover Officer Corruption: the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) requires “written procedures for conducting vice, drug, and organized crime surveillance, undercover, decoy, and rapid operations.” However, trying to balance the law with politics may have draw backs for undercover cops. For instance, there is evidence that Masstroopers assigned to Mitt Romney prior to the governors election were hung up in a federal sweep in New Orleans. In the days before 9/11, FBI agents eavesdropped on the brothels’ telephones mainly because they had little to do. In New Orleans, the feds focused on the Canal Street Brothel owned by Jeanette Maier (pictured here). Prudently, the feds sent in undercover ‘clients’ to partake in the services of the brothel ‘to be sure.’ According to the feds, they had stumbled upon a crime syndicate of scantily clad women.

Powerful corporate leaders hired several of Jeanette Maier’s girls including her daughter, Monica Rene Montemayor. The girls were paid $3,000 each plus $1,000 to the house to entertain clients during a trip to the Mississippi gulf coast in a 41-foot Sea Ray named CRIME SCENE. The raid upon the vessel was successful and a large group of hookers were arrested. On April 2, 2002, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Orleans unveiled a 16-count indictment, charging Jeanette a dozen other girls with conspiracy and interstate travel in aid of racketeering. Beaming at a press conference, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sal Perricone proclaimed, “This case represents what I feel is one of the vilest forms of racketeering, and that’s the exploitation of women for the sake of a buck.” What he didn’t say was anything about the Jeanette’s clients. Their names were conspicuously absent from the indictment.

According to sources: U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, case number 02-078, U.S. v. Jeanette Maier, et. al.; and CBS, 48 Hours Investigates, “The Canal Street Brothel,” June 4, 2003 - When reporters tried to get details about the client list—rumored to contain the names of some of the wealthiest and most powerful men in New Orleans—U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle sealed the court records.  

When the client list emerged, some said that the federal prosecutors were probably scared to go after many of those clients. Defense lawyers, argued that the government was treating their female clients unfairly and threatened to go public with the names of the clients. According to one defense lawyers, one name was that of the son of the former governor of a northern state, and two males who were Massachusetts State Troopers.  After the brothel-vessel case became the butt of late-night talk show jokes, the feds brought in Al Winters and Bill McSherry, a couple of seasoned federal prosecutors. The New Orleans prosecutors who had indicted the case, Sal Perricone and Gaynell Williams, dropped from sight.

Court records show that the government dropped the original 16-count indictment in exchange for a few guilty pleas. Two of those guilty pleas were the Masstroopers assigned to Mitt Romney who had subsequently been elected governor. We all have our crosses to carry, even Newt Gingrich whose past remains undercover sort’a speak, says the Washington Post.