What constitutes acting as an agent of the police?

Answer 1

Acting as an agent for the police is either legal or illegal.

LEGAL: An agent for the police is another term for a sworn POLICE OFFICER (Officer, Deputy Sheriff, Sheriff, Constable, Detective, Investigator, Agent, etc.) or any employee of the police department to act on their behalf when they speak to any member of the public for the Department.

ILLEGAL: Anyone who impersonates a police officer by using any of the above-mentioned terms or by any other means of leading the public to believe one is a law-enforcement officer. This can either be in person or by telephone.

One can also be an agent of the police by conducting a search at the behest of law enforcement. This is not the same as an informant, which can be sent in wired (see U.S. v White, SCOTUS) in order to conduct a buy or to engage a suspect in conversation of an incriminating nature. Supervision by police is the touchstone which makes the agent-search ILLEGAL; if the agent searches to further their own personal agenda, their acts are not considered at the behest of law enforcement, and hence are LEGAL.

A popular technique to setup an anticipatory "good-faith" rationale is performed by the savvy officer wiring an informant to purportedly "confirm" something, then when held to task civilly, the officer claims he only knew of White, which allows a wired "informant" to talk of dirty deeds or buy dirty items. Supervised government agent searches are decried by Burdeau v McDowell and Elkins v US (1960), also both well settled cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. Again, private searches are accented by jurisprudence as not being illegal.

To be clear, it is the supervisory aspect of the agent's actions, acting at the behest of law enforcement, which makes this ILLEGAL. This supervision turns a private citizen into an agent of the government.

In further clarification, a sworn police officer acting as an agent or informer is a different scenario, considered LEGAL. A suspect has no expectation of privacy when he invites a sworn officer (undercover agent making a narcotic buy) into private areas, even private areas in the home. There is also no privacy in the sharing of information with a sworn-officer who happens to be an agent (conversing of bank robbery or selling contraband), as referenced above .

It still amounts to this: if you do something illegal, you will be uncovered by any combination of the above investigation scenarios. It is, however, illegal for law enforcement to send in an agent (sworn officer or private citizen) for the purpose of conducting a search.