By Guest Police1 columnist Dave Grossi
[Reprinted with permission from ASLET’s “The Law Enforcement Trainer” magazine]
This issue’s Officer Survival column takes another twist from the usual tactical theories of street survival to an area that hasn’t received much attention lately. Recently, down here in southwest Florida, a shooting incident received a fair amount of press. It began after an undercover investigator was shot by a uniformed police officer. This column is not going to focus specifically on the factors that led to this tragic shooting, as we addressed those issues last Fall in “Surviving Friendly Fire Incidents.” In this column, I want to delve into an area that hasn’t been touched on much at all; and that’s how to survive working undercover.
Most ASLET members and readers of The Trainer know that I spent a good portion of my 20+-year career in upstate New York working undercover narcotics. In fact, the photograph of yours truly that appears below is the official photograph kept by my agency in the Narcotics Unit files, and was required as part of the documentation for all undercover vice cops along with our assumed undercover street names. So that seems like a good place to start…with your name.
Aliases
Prior to beginning my undercover stint, I was required to attend the Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration Narcotics Officer Training School. It was there that all of us “baby narcs” were taught to adopt credible aliases. While the moniker “Vito Narconi” might sound funny, it may cause more than a few problems when you accidentally bump into someone you know on the street. Joe Pistone, the FBI Special Agent made famous in the Donnie Brasco movie that starred Al Pacino and Johnny Depp, (which was based on Special Agent Pistone’s book), learned the hard way that adopting an entirely different first and last name isn’t always the way to go.
DEA recommends that you keep your real first name (and also your real date of birth) in the event you’re ever greeted by someone during a social event or on the street who doesn’t know you’re “on the job.” Our phony NYS Driver’s Licenses had our real dates of birth and our aliases, but all the narcs on the squad used their real first names in their aliases.
“Dave Graziano” was born that day but his date of birth was actually 25 years earlier.
Weapons
Whether you’re going to “carry” or not may be a matter of personal preference or an issue that your agency addresses. During my five drug task force stints, we all “carried” as a general rule although there were several specific times I couldn’t because of the nature of the individual assignment.
My gun of choice was a Titan .25 caliber semiautomatic. I would have preferred a Smith and Wesson Model 59 or 39 (the most popular 9mm semiautomatic police pistol back then) but it looked too much like a cop’s gun. At least my little .25 caliber was center fire rather than the rim fire .22 caliber that one of my partners carried, but it could never be mistaken for a police weapon. If found, it fit in well with my assumed identity as a biker-type criminal.
Toward the latter part of my undercover duties, I was assigned to the NYS Narcotics Bureau and was assigned to investigate physicians who were selling narcotics and/or prescriptions for controlled substances. A few of these “doctors” (and I use that word liberally) were not beyond asking the patient to undress or at least take off his shirt presumably to run a stethoscope over his lungs but in reality it was to look for either a wire, a recorder or a gun.
In those cases, even an ankle holster might have been discovered. But the general rule of thumb is “carry a weapon” but not something that would be instantly recognizable as a police duty pistol if discovered. It is also a good idea to head out to the range, run through a qualification course with that weapon, and make sure the make, model, caliber and serial number is recorded with the Firearms/Range Staff.
Dress
| Grossi undercover |
If you’re posing as a street junkie, you may want to skip the expensive $65 GAP or Hilfiger’s and opt for a pair of Wrangler or “Jacque” Penney jeans. Likewise with your shoes, shirts and jackets. The biker colors I donned for one summer (a jean vest with the usual accouterments, 1%-er patch, and New York “lower rocker” on the back) had a small pistol pocket sewn inside, but the authenticity purposes, it went through the usual initiation by my fellow narcs. In the interest of politeness here, I’ll skip the specific details, but I’m sure you get the picture. The primary objective is to fit in with your target group. If your goal is to penetrate the high-rollers or jet-set crowd, you’re going to blow a good portion of your clothing allowance on clothes and accessories. Most of my squad had pierced ears because it was a staple of the culture in which we were living. In fact, my partner and I pierced our own. A few of the squad members had temporary gold or silver caps on their teeth, too. Your cover identity may require some out-of-pocket expenses if you’re going to penetrate the upper echelon of society and score designer drugs from the glitter crowd, but remember that you may have to quickly identify yourself in an emergency. If the “color of the day” is a rule in your agency, make sure it is visible. For those not familiar with that term, it applies to a color or “word” that should be used to identify one’s self to uniform officers who may challenge you during a street encounter.
Emotional
I have often spoken fondly of retired Deputy Police Chief Frank Dovidio. During my time as a street narc, he was the Detective Supervisor of my unit. Always conscious of our long hours and days he was the ever-present eye keeping watch over his “team of tigers.” Whenever he sensed that we were pulling the wires too tight or needed some down time, he’d make sure we got away from the office for a weekend or more. To a narc, the draw of the street can be overwhelming and even addicting. The role of the Narcotic Supervisor is sometimes even more important that the funding, the equipment, your informants, or everything else that goes into making an operation a success.
The lure of making the buy and turning that buy into an even larger buy or flipping a small fish into a bigger one can be incredibly strong. If you’re a trainer-turned-boss supervising a street narc team, make sure you have plenty of resources at your disposal, physicians, pharmacists, therapists, counselors or whatever you might need to make sure your team has everything it needs to stay on the right path during this operation, especially if it’s long-term or your people are working deep cover.
Back ups
One is optional, the other is not. “Back up weapons” are an option. But think about it. How many street people carry two guns? By all means, if you can get away carrying a back-up weapon and keep your covert identity intact, go for it!
The other “back up” (your partner) is not an option. It is mandatory. Nobody works totally alone. You may dream of being the “Lone Ranger” but that’s a foolish game to play and no credible Vice/Narcotics supervisor is going to allow it. Even Kemosabe had Tonto. True, a lot of buys have to be made alone, and I made my share; but my partner was always within view or ear shot, via a wire or through direct eye contact.
I wish I had a dollar for every late night “beeper” call from an informant who had a “sure thing” set up and another buck every time I disturbed my partner during our off time. Right after that page was returned to the snitch, the very next call was to my partner. Even when I was working for the state infiltrating the medical profession, I obviously had to go into the examination room by myself. Wires and Nagra body records were out. But that other sorry-looking junkie sitting in the corner chair of the doctor’s waiting room who appeared to be “on the nod” was my partner, ready to bust the door down in the event the “doc” and his male nurse (read: body guard) decided that a large dose of Dilaudid or Demerol needed to be administered to yours truly this fine morning.
Speaking of wires, if you can get away with them, use them. Body recorders are great for preserving evidence, but they won’t do squat for your butt if the “defecation hits the ventilator” during a hand-to-hand exchange. For that you’ll want a wire. The old quasi-reliable Kel-Kits I used during my days are things of the past. Most modern body transmitters are very reliable, small, and discreet, and can cover a lot more distance than the devices my task force buds and I used back in the 20th Century.
Remember who you are
While I realize that I risk infuriating a few officers with this next paragraph, it has to be said. Nothing is worth compromising your integrity as a police officer. Whether it’s sleeping with a snitch or tasting the stash, remember you’re committing a crime, destroying your own credibility, and damaging your profession not to mention risking your life.
The task force I worked for had the luxury of not only a great boss, but also great resources. Our police surgeon would give us phony “track marks” to bolster our cover as users. We also had “beat bags” of placebos (caffeine inside “black beauty” or Biphetamine-12 capsules, or plain milk sugar in Seconal or Nembutol capsules) made up by registered pharmacists in the event we were placed into situations where we may be placed into a situation of having to “use” what we were looking to buy.
Deceit and trickery were common when we where forced to test cocaine or smack. I was lucky that every member of our task force team was handpicked by the agency, most were experienced narcs, and EVERYONE was vetted by our task force commander before being allowed to work. I never saw one of my team mates use anything illegal, or taint his reputation by bedding down a female snitch or target, or help himself to a sample of the buy.
And we had tremendous scores, methamphetamine in excess of 25,000 hits, coke by the ounce, smack by the bag, and tens of pounds of marijuana. Other neighboring narcotics units weren’t so lucky. It’s easy to get trapped in that street culture or fast lifestyle, but you always have to stay focused and remember who and what you are.
I realize that this is just a short primer on working undercover. If that duty is in any of your futures, don’t undertake that assignment until you’ve attended a legitimate undercover school, series of classes, or course of study. The DoJ’s DEA School, in my opinion, is the best. The curriculum went into some real important topics including pharmacology, surveillance (physical and electronic), field testing, buy/bust procedures, controlled buys, cultivating informants, search warrant applications, etc.
I also attended a few other municipal courses prior to an opening in the DEA class, put on by local agency staff personnel as well as some OJT (on-the-job-training) with an experienced narc. While nothing beats the experience of working the street with an honest veteran narcotics cop as a trainer, the material and curriculum covered in the DEA’s Narcotics Investigators School is a must. It will also help when it becomes necessary to qualify yourself on the stand when you testify in front of either a grand jury (when seeking sealed indictment warrants) or any trials resulting from your drug busts.
© 2005 By Dave Grossi
About the author
Dave Grossi was known as Dave Graziano (see photo above) during his 4-1/4 year period as an undercover narcotics investigator in upstate New York. A graduate of the US Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Narcotics Investigators Training School, and the US Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) Investigators School, Dave was the recipient of numerous awards and honors including, the International Narcotics Enforcement Officers Association (INEOA) Special Award of Honor in 1990 for his work in undercover narcotics investigations.