Under the Covers

Undercover police work is both important and dangerous, not just to the officers who engage in it, but also for its potential to be misused. Over 30 years ago, we in Puerto Rico saw the tragic results of an undercover agent who, in essence, became a criminal, in order to entrap would-be terrorists.

Currently, in the United Kingdom, a couple of undercover agents have been charged with getting women pregnant while maintaining them under surveillance. The nature of undercover work makes it quite difficult not to step over the line between the legal and the illegal, the moral and the immoral. It takes a very strong individual to resist the temptations that come with the territory in this line of police work.

There aren't all that many people that can perform these tasks successfully without, at least, embarrassing themselves.

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