Sting operation

U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service preparations for an ecstasy sting

In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime. A typical sting will have a law-enforcement officer or cooperative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather evidence of the suspect's wrongdoing. Even mass media journalists resort to sting operations to record video and broadcast to expose illegal things.[1]

Sting operations are common in many countries including the United States,[2] but not allowed in other countries such as Sweden.[3]

Examples

Ethical and legal concerns

Sting operations are fraught with ethical concerns over whether they constitute entrapment. Law-enforcement may have to be careful not to provoke the commission of a crime by someone who would not otherwise have done so. Additionally, in the process of such operations, the police often engage in the same crimes, such as buying or selling contraband, soliciting prostitutes, etc. In common law jurisdictions, the defendant may invoke the defense of entrapment.

Contrary to popular misconceptions, however, entrapment does not prohibit undercover police officers from posing as criminals or denying that they are police.[5] Entrapment is typically a defense only suspect are pressured into committing a crime they would probably not have committed otherwise, but the legal definition of this pressure varies greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

For example, if undercover officers coerced a potential suspect into manufacturing illegal drugs to sell them, the accused could use entrapment as a defense. However, if a suspect is already manufacturing drugs and police pose as buyers to catch them, entrapment usually has not occurred.

Sting operations in popular culture

The term "sting" was popularized by the 1973 Robert Redford and Paul Newman movie The Sting, but the film is not about a police operation: it features two grifters and their attempts to con a mob boss out of a large sum of money.

See also

Notes

  1. "Watch: FBI Targets American Muslims in Abusive Counterterrorism "Sting Operations"". The Huffington Post.
  2. NJA 2007 s. 1037.
  3. "Palm Springs, Coachella Valley - Weather, News, Sports: Special Report: Local police crack down on adults buying booze for minors". kesq.com. Archived from the original on September 3, 2014.
  4. "What Is Entrapment?". Slate.
  5. Joseph Richard Gutheinz (November 2004). "In Search of the Goodwill Moon Rocks: A Personal Account". geotimes.org.
  6. Christina Reed (September 2002). "Moon rocks for sale!". geotimes.org.

External links

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