A confidential informant agreement form is the contract a law enforcement agency asks you to sign before you begin cooperating in a criminal investigation. It records who you are, sets strict rules for what you can and cannot do while you are active, and spells out the penalties if you break those rules. Every major federal agency that uses human sources — ATF, DEA, FBI, HSI — has its own version, as do most state and local departments. Reading it carefully before you sign matters more than almost anything else, because the obligations inside are legally enforceable and violations can be prosecuted.
Personal Information You’ll Provide
The form opens with basic identification: full legal name, aliases or street names, date of birth, and Social Security number. Disclosing your Social Security number is technically voluntary under the Privacy Act of 1974, but agencies request it for identification and background checks. Physical descriptors — height, weight, eye color, hair color, scars, tattoos — go on the form as well, so handlers can maintain a working profile.
Every agreement is tied to a case file number or confidential informant number that links your cooperation to a specific investigation and chain of command. That number, not your name, is what appears in later reports.
Rules of Conduct You’re Agreeing To
The core of the agreement is a set of behavioral rules you agree to follow for as long as you are active. The wording varies by agency, but the substance is nearly identical across federal and state forms.
- No unauthorized criminal activity. You may not break any law unless the agency has expressly authorized that specific act in advance and in writing. ATF’s form states plainly: “any violation of the law not expressly authorized by ATF may result in my prosecution.”
- No violence. You may not participate in acts of violence. If someone proposes one, you’re required to discourage the plan and notify your handler immediately.
- No entrapment. You cannot initiate a criminal plan or induce someone to commit a crime they were not already inclined to commit.
- No impersonating law enforcement. You are not an officer, not an employee of the agency, and cannot hold yourself out as either.
- No interference with attorney-client privilege. You may not deliberately listen to conversations between indicted individuals and their lawyers. If you overhear defense strategy by accident, you cannot report it without prior approval from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
- Truthful information only. You are obligated to give truthful information and testimony. A deliberate false statement is prosecutable under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, which carries up to five years in federal prison.
- Regular contact with your handler. You must follow instructions and report any change to your phone number or address.
Controlled substances get a specific warning. Your association with the agency gives you no special privileges to use or sell them, and you may not handle contraband unless the agency has specifically authorized it.
When the Agency Authorizes You to Break the Law
Some investigations require you to do things that would otherwise be crimes — buying drugs from a target, for example. The Attorney General’s Guidelines split these authorizations into two tiers. Tier 1 covers more serious activity and requires advance written approval from both the agency’s Special Agent in Charge and the appropriate Chief Federal Prosecutor. Tier 2 covers less serious activity and requires written approval from a Senior Field Manager. Both authorizations run for 90 days at a time and must include a documented finding that the activity is necessary to obtain evidence unavailable by other means, or to prevent death, serious injury, or significant property damage, and that the benefits outweigh the risks.
Some acts are never authorized. The Guidelines prohibit agencies from permitting an informant to participate in violence, obstruct justice (perjury, witness tampering, fabricating evidence), conduct illegal searches or wiretaps, or initiate a criminal scheme. If you’re asked to do any of these things, the agreement itself gives you grounds to refuse.
Payment and the Tax Bill That Follows
Some informants receive cash payments. Others cooperate in exchange for a leniency recommendation at sentencing. The agreement specifies which arrangement applies to you. When money changes hands, the agency documents each payment with a receipt tied to the terms of the agreement.
Cash payments from a law enforcement agency are taxable income. Government payments are reportable under IRS rules, and once your total reaches $600 or more in a calendar year, the agency is required to issue a Form 1099-MISC. Even if no 1099 shows up, the income is still reportable on your return. Set aside a portion of any payment for taxes before you spend it.
Signing the Agreement
You sign in the presence of your assigned handler to confirm that your participation is voluntary. The ATF form opens with this line: “ATF has requested my assistance with official law enforcement activities. In furtherance of ATF’s mission, I voluntarily agree to perform this service.” That language is standard across agencies and it matters. If you later claim you were coerced, the signed acknowledgment works against you.
Your handler’s signature alone is not enough. A first-line supervisor or approving official must also sign to authorize your active status. For informants who hold sensitive positions (public officials, attorneys, clergy, journalists, military members), those with serious criminal histories, or minors, approval has to come from higher in the chain, sometimes at the level of a Deputy Assistant Director. The agreement is not operative until every required signature is in place.
You have the right to have an attorney review the agreement before you sign. In practice, this right is often waived, because agencies frequently approach potential cooperators right after an arrest, before counsel has been retained. If you have any opportunity to get a lawyer involved, take it. An attorney can flag unusually broad provisions, negotiate the scope of your obligations, and tell you whether cooperating is in your interest at all.
How Your Identity Is Protected — and When It Isn’t
Once signed, the agreement goes into a confidential working file kept separate from general investigative records. You’re assigned a numeric code or code name that replaces your real name in subsequent reports. Only your handler and a limited number of supervisors can link that number back to you.
The agreement will promise that the agency will use “all legal means available” to keep your identity confidential, and in the same breath it will tell you confidentiality cannot be guaranteed. Two bodies of law explain why.
The Jencks Act (18 U.S.C. § 3500) says no statement you made to the government can be subpoenaed or discovered until after you have testified on direct examination at trial. Once you take the stand, the defense can demand every prior statement you made that relates to your testimony. If the government refuses to turn those statements over, the court must strike your testimony, and may declare a mistrial.
Separately, the Supreme Court’s decision in Roviaro v. United States established that the government’s privilege to withhold an informant’s identity is not absolute. When your identity or your communications are “relevant and helpful to the defense of an accused, or essential to a fair determination of a cause,” the privilege gives way. Courts decide case by case, weighing the public interest in protecting the flow of information against the defendant’s right to prepare a defense. Disclosure is most likely when you were a direct participant in the transaction at the center of the case. If you were the only other person in the room during the alleged crime, a court will almost certainly order the government to reveal who you are.
If your cooperation leads to charges and the case goes to trial, there is a real chance your identity will come out through the legal process, whatever the agreement says.
How the Relationship Ends
Signing does not make you an informant for life. The Attorney General’s Guidelines require agencies to conduct a continuing suitability review of every registered informant at least once a year. The review looks at whether you are still providing useful information, whether you have complied with the agreement’s terms, and whether continued use remains appropriate. For informants registered for five or more consecutive years, the review is more comprehensive and must specifically weigh whether your ongoing value justifies the accumulated risk.
Deactivation is the formal end of your status. It can happen for cause or for any other reason. When an agency decides to deactivate you, the Guidelines require it to act immediately: deactivate you in the system, document the reasons, notify you, and revoke any outstanding authorization for otherwise illegal activity. The agency may delay notifying you only if doing so would jeopardize an ongoing investigation or cause someone to flee prosecution, and even then the delay and its reasons must be documented.
After deactivation for cause, agents generally cannot initiate further contact with you or respond to your contacts without advance approval from a Senior Field Manager.
Immigration Status for Non-Citizen Informants
Non-citizen cooperators may be eligible for an S nonimmigrant visa. The S-5 category is for individuals who possess critical, reliable information about a criminal organization. The S-6 category is for information about a terrorist organization. Congress caps S-5 visas at 200 per year and S-6 visas at 50 per year.
The law enforcement agency, not the informant, petitions for this status by filing Form I-854 with the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. After you have fulfilled the terms of your cooperation agreement, the agency can request adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident under section 245(j) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. USCIS makes the final decision. You have no independent right to file or appeal.
Witness Security
If your cooperation puts your life or your family’s safety at serious risk, the ATF agreement and most federal equivalents include a provision saying the agency will, with your permission, apply to the Department of Justice for admission to the Witness Security Program. The final decision belongs to DOJ, not the investigating agency. The agreement is explicit about this so you understand that your handler cannot independently promise you witness protection, only recommend it.