"Redaction" is the removal of information from a document.
When drafting an application for a warrant, production order or similar
order, you must give "full and frank disclosure" to the justice or judge
who grants the order.
Such applications often include secrets which your sources told, in the
confidence that you would not reveal their identities to the suspects.
To satisfy your obligation to the court, you must include all
detail relevant to the informants' trustworthiness, and the reliability
of their information.
To protect the sources, you must ask the court to seal up (hide) some
or all of your application.
If your investigation leads to charges, the defendant may challenge the
lawfulness of the judge's warrant or authorization. When doing so, the
defendant enjoys the right to see all of the application - except those
parts which tend to identify the informant.
Prepare your application to redact those parts.
The trial judge will decide, based only on what the defendant sees,
whether there were sufficient grounds that the first judge or justice could
have lawfully granted the warrant.
Therefore, you want to leave as much information as possible
unredacted, without giving the defence information which tends to
identify your source.
Black Felt Pen
If you draft your application without considering how it will look
after redaction, you will give the trial judge an incomprehensible mess.
For example, this looks fine at first. Click the button below to see
what material which tends to identify the source, and what happens after
you run a black felt pen over that material:
Confidential source A told me that on December 6,
2009, he ate dinner at Henry
Waldock's house. While he was
there, he saw Mr Waldock receive 20
or 30 packages of cocaine. Mr Waldock told him
that this delivery was “the
best powder he ever got from the Colombians”.
I have received 24 tips from Confidential Source A in the past 3
years. Of these tips, 7 were proved reliable by subsequent arrests
of the suspects involved, and seizure of the contraband identified
in those tips. 4 other tips the source gave matched tips from
different tipsters and and 4 tips matched information gathered by
police officers during their own investigations. I have no
information to confirm or contradict the remaining tips.
Confidential Source A has the following criminal record:
1999-12-21 Perjury 6 months
2001-01-13 PPT 12 months
2005-05-15 Obstruct P.O. Suspended
Sentence 1 year
Summarise + Detail
Think in advance what the black felt pen will do. Then write a summary
which you can give to defence. Under it, list the dangerous details in a
sublist. The black felt pen will leave the summary, and remove the
details.
Confidential Source A told me that in early December, Source A
attended Henry Waldock's house, where Source A saw a large quantity
of cocaine. In particular:
Source A attended on December 6, 2009;
While Source A was there, Source A saw
Waldock receive 20 to 30 packages of cocaine;
Waldock said that this delivery was
“the best powder he ever got from the Colombians”.
I have received 24 tips from Confidential Source A in the past 3
years. Of these tips, 7 were proved reliable by subsequent arrests
of the suspects involved, and seizure of the contraband identified
in those tips. 4 other tips the source gave matched tips from
different tipsters and and 4 tips matched information gathered by
police officers during their own investigations. I have no
information to confirm or contradict the remaining tips.
Confidential Source A has criminal convictions for untruthfulness
and drugs, in particular:
1999-12-21 Perjury 6 months
2001-01-13 PPT 12 months
2005-05-15 Obstruct P.O. Suspended
Sentence 1 year
Tear-away
This technique sequesters all the dangerous material on a separate
page. Instead of running a black felt pen over the dangerous material,
you simply "tear away" the appendix, and give defence counsel and the
judge what remains.
Confidential Source A told me that in early December Source A
attended Henry Waldock's house, where Source A saw a large quantity
of cocaine. Further details of this information are attached at
Appendix A.
Confidential Source A has criminal convictions for untruthfulness
and drugs. Exact details of these convictions may be found in
Appendix A.
I have received 24 tips from Confidential Source A in the past 3
years. Of these tips, 7 were proved reliable by subsequent arrests
of the suspects involved, and seizure of the contraband identified
in those tips. 4 other tips the source gave matched tips from
different tipsters and and 4 tips matched information gathered by
police officers during their own investigations. I have no
information to confirm or contradict the remaining tips.
APPENDIX A
Details which tend to identify the source, but which also tend to
assist in determining whether to rely on him are listed below,
according to the paragraph to which they relate:
The additional information which Source A told me is:
Source A attended on December 6, 2009;
While Source A was there, Source A saw Waldock receive 20 to
30 packages of cocaine;
Waldock said that this delivery was “the best powder he ever
got from the Colombians”.
Source A has the following criminal record:
1999-12-21 Perjury 6 months
2001-01-13 PPT 12 months
2005-05-15 Obstruct P.O. Suspended Sentence 1 year