The leading practical guide for anyone working in covert investigation. Containing new case law and updates to all the relevant legislation and codes of practice, the book is designed to help officers improve the quality of RIPA applications and ensure they are made in appropriate circumstances.

Examining all the key issues to consider when deploying investigative tools under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, Covert Investigation is a highly practical and detailed guide to this important, complex, and sometimes controversial area of the law. This sixth edition of Covert Investigation has been fully revised to incorporate amendments to RIPA enacted by the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act 2021, setting the moral and legal context for the ethical management and implementation of covert investigations, and the statutory principles underpinning such interventions. Its first Part discusses the issues facing authorizing officers and focuses on practical management issues from both strategic and operational perspectives, including the management of risk. Part 2 concentrates on the statutory elements of covert investigations, addressing directed and intrusive surveillance, property interference and surveillance through communications and the data generated. It includes detailed discussion of the use of covert human intelligence sources, especially the significant moral issues arising from relationship manipulation and privacy intrusion. The authors present clear and concise guidance to ensure that applications for covert investigations are made only in appropriate circumstances and that such investigations are undertaken with integrity. Featuring a range of helpful tools, such as scenarios, tips, and checklists, this edition is an essential resource for police and non-police investigators alike The book forms part of the Blackstone's Practical Policing Series. The series, aimed at junior to middle ranking officers, consists of practical guides containing clear and detailed explanations of the relevant legislation and practice, accompanied by case studies, illustrative diagrams, and useful checklists.

Undercover research is an emotive and controversial field often equated with deception and transgression. Using classic examples and contemporary case studies this book challenges covert research’s dispersed place within the social sciences and rehabilitates its reputation as a powerful research method. Drawing in part on his own undercover research into the night-time economy of bouncers, the author explores the roots and evolution of covert research; his deft treatment of the fear and fascination within furtive fieldwork is grounded in the practicality of the methods and tools needed to conduct quality research in the field. Packed with learning-by-example tips, this book shows that with critical imagination and proper ethical foundations, covert research could be a great addition to your methodological toolkit.

What is covert policing? How do covert surveillance officers use their time? What are their perceptions of the work, its status, rewards and challenges? How are operations planned, authorised, carried out and reviewed? How do officers understand and negotiate the dilemmas involved in carrying out the peculiar demands of their job? Does the existing authorisation regime strike an appropriate balance between the need for police accountability and the protection of civil liberties on the one hand, and operational efficiency and the demands of security on the other? This book provides answers to these questions and more, and presents the first truly ethnographic account of the inner-world of covert policing. This book sheds new light on a largely hidden and poorly understood form of investigation and offers a major contrubution to research on police culture and police practice.

A brilliant work from the most influential philosopher since Sartre. In this indispensable work, a brilliant thinker suggests that such vaunted reforms as the abolition of torture and the emergence of the modern penitentiary have merely shifted the focus of punishment from the prisoner's body to his soul.