Officer Dan Leger, a southern undercover narcotics officer, was always quick with an ad lib. One story Leger told us really showed the importance of the quick comeback in police work. A creative impromptu answer can be an officer’s best tool for handling the situation by controlling the conversation.
“I was working undercover, and I was making a buy. You’ve got to record everything you can for evidence when the buy goes down, and this means you almost always have to be wearing some sort of ‘wire’ for recording your conversations. Unfortunately, every dealer knows that, too. Hollywood has always shown the undercover cop putting a wire right on the chest area, so for starters you want to be creative in where you put the wire. But you’ve also got to be prepared to talk your way out if the bad guys happen to find it. You’d be surprised at what they’ll believe.”
One criminal, for instance, went straight to Leger’s wire and confronted him, blowing the officer’s cover sky high. In less than a minute, however, Leger had managed to convince the criminal not only that he wasn’t a cop, but also that he was one of the baddest and smartest criminals that particular dumb criminal had ever run into.
When the criminal shouted, “This is a wire! You’re a cop!” Leger looked at him like he didn’t have a lick of sense and then explained the facts of life.
“Of course it’s a wire,” he said patiently. “My lawyer told me to wear this so I’d have evidence to prove entrapment if I ever made a buy from an undercover officer. You ought to be wearing one, man. If a cop busts us and we go to court, it’s our word against the cop’s . . . and who do you think a judge is going to believe? But if you’ve got them on tape you can blow their case right out of the water.”
The dumb criminal was stunned by the logic.
“Wow, that’s really true, man. Great idea! Where did you get yours?’’
“I told him where he could get a wire, and I also gave him some tips on how to wear it. He thanked me warmly for the information, then he went ahead and sold me the dope. I eventually proved my point in court.”
The judge and jury did take Leger’s word over the dumb criminal’s because Leger had the recording from his wire and that was the evidence that convicted him.