Paid Informants

I don't think information from paid informants should ever be considered reliable by a court. Not ever. It should not be admitted as evidence at trial, it should not be relied on to establish probable cause for a warrent.

If investigators want to use paid informants for informatin which might help point them in a good direction for an investigation, even though that information itself probably isn't reliable, then I think that's okay.

But, no way should it be considered reliable enough for a court to rely on it to actually take adverse action against a citizen.

Paid informants should always be presumed unreliable. Always.