KIDS SHOULDN'T BE INFORMANTS

Police use of teenage informants in drug cases is bad policy and should be
abandoned. The murder this month of Chad MacDonald Jr. of Yorba Linda
proves the point.

MacDonald, 17, was arrested in January for possessing and transporting a
small amount of methamphetamine. His mother gave permission for her son to
work for Brea police but says she later changed her mind. Her lawyer said
MacDonald gave police information that led to two or three arrests.

However, Brea police said they were not using the youth as an informant
when he went with his girlfriend to a Norwalk house known as a center for
drug sales.

His body was found days later in South Los Angeles; the girl, who had been
raped and shot, was found alive in Angeles National Forest. Two people have
been arrested in the case.

Police juggle the risks and rewards of informants daily. The Los Angeles,
Anaheim and Westminster police departments and the Orange County Sheriff's
Department do not use people of MacDonald's age in drug cases. Departments
that do should reconsider their policies.

Sending a 17-year-old out to buy cocaine or heroin is a far cry from
sending him into a store to see whether it sells cigarettes or alcohol to
underage customers.

Although Brea police did not send MacDonald to Norwalk, his mother said he
felt pressured to obtain evidence against major drug dealers in order to
get the still-pending charges against him dropped.

Older informants may make their own assessments of risk, but a youth of
McDonald's age should not have to make this decision. Rather than offering
young offenders and their parents a tempting but dangerous gamble to get
off the hook, authorities should provide alternative sentencing or
community service, when appropriate, to put young lives on the right track.

Copyright Los Angeles Times