NATIONAL MEDIA INTEREST 'INTENSE' OVER HOFFMAN CASE

She was supposed to stay in the shadows.

If things had gone according to plan, you never would have heard of
23-year-old Rachel Hoffman. She would have just been another
confidential informant, one of more than an estimated 100,000 in the
United States who work with police to send someone else to jail.

But after a botched sting operation May 7 and her slaying, Hoffman's
life is anything but confidential. Her name has been thrust directly
into the national spotlight.

"'60 Minutes' has called, 'Dateline' has called, '20/20' has already
been here and filmed," said Lance Block, the attorney for the Hoffman
family. "Rolling Stone was here to do a story. I can't tell you how
many media representatives have called me. Agents, people that want
to do books - I don't have enough time in the day for it all."

"The media interest has just been so intense."

So much so that Block is utilizing the services of Ron Sachs
Communications, a public relations firm in Tallahassee, to deal with
the flood of media requests. Or in some cases, demands.

"'60 Minutes' wanted exclusivity," said Marsha Koppe, Vice President
of Sachs Communications.

Block and the Hoffman family weren't willing to grant it, so instead
"20/20" will be the first national magazine show to deal with the
death of Hoffman.

"Right now, and things can always change if a national story breaks
or something like that, but it looks like it will air on the evening
of July 25," Koppe said. "And it's going to be a package piece with
'Good Morning America.'"

Alexandra Natapoff is hoping Hoffman's "tragic story" wakes the
nation up to the controversial use of confidential informants.

Natapoff is a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and one
of the nation's leading experts on confidential informants. She has
written a book titled "Snitching: Using Criminals to Manage Crime"
that will be released by New York University Press, and she testified
before Congress last year about a notorious case in Atlanta in which
a confidential informant's lead wound up with the police raiding the
wrong house and eventually killing an innocent 92-year-old woman
named Kathryn Johnston.

Natapoff said Hoffman's case might create a similar fire storm
throughout the nation because of who she was. Or more to the point,
who she wasn't.

Hoffman wasn't facing serious jail time. She wasn't male. She wasn't
uneducated, and she wasn't a minority.

"It's not just that she was merely white, she was also represented
with counsel," Natapoff said. "And she had a family that did not
think they needed to take this lying down."

One of the many questions raised by the Hoffman case is exactly how
much danger confidential informants are in when they work with police?

The answers come from all over the country.

In 1984, a South Florida confidential informant was shot and killed
at a bar in Palm Beach County.

In August 1989, an informer in New York City was shot and killed so
he wouldn't give information to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

In 1998, a California teenager who had worn a wire during one
undercover drug bust was later shot and murdered.

In 2004, a 20-year-old father of two was gunned down in Brooklyn
after leading police to an apartment where a loaded gun and crack were found.

In 2006, a Pennsylvania man was stabbed more than 20 times and killed
during a botched undercover drug buy after police officers lost sight of him.

"It's a routine risk and threat," Natapoff said. "It's no surprise to
anyone in the criminal system that something like this would happen.
But when the Hoffman family got mad they started asking, 'How could
this happen?'"

And almost as importantly, how can it be stopped from happening again?

Block and the Hoffman family are hoping the media attention will
spark a reform in how confidential informants are used. As it stands
now, police agencies have free reign - especially when it comes to
drug crimes - to make dangerous, secretive deals with users and dealers.

"There are no checks and balances," Block said.

And that's a problem, according to Natapoff.

While she readily admits confidential informants play a vital role in
bringing criminals to justice, she is concerned about the lack of
supervision and regulation involved in such a pressurized environment.

"The criminal system tells police officers you need to make drug
busts," she said. "And here's a tool that will enable you to do that.
We won't make you write it down. There are not any rules. We'll just
leave it to your discretion."

Hoffman's case, with the national attention it has brought and will
continue to bring, may be a catalyst for change.

"When any incident like this occurs in law enforcement, the command
structure has to take a close look at how this happened and why this
happened," said former Maryland police officer Rich Roberts, who now
serves as the public information officer for the International Union
of Police Associations. "Other officers around the country that see
this story when '20/20' runs it - as well as the jurisdictions around
Tallahassee that have seen the coverage already - are going to see
what happened there and ask why.

"No one is going to ignore this. I can promise you that."

Natapoff argues there should be more accountability, more
documentation and more transparency when it comes to confidential
informants. She thinks cases like Hoffman's and Johnston's will help
shine a light on this secretive and largely unknown aspect of police work.

"Inch by inch, story by story, you're going to start seeing the
ramifications of these actions," she said. "But reform in the
criminal justice system is usually one piece of the puzzle at a time."