Sting Operation: A Law Enforcement Technique

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Sting operation is a law enforcement technique that uses deception to catch a person committing a crime. The operations are generally used by undercover law enforcement officers where they act as accomplices. For example, an officer deploys a bait car to catch a car thief or poses as a buyer who is seeking illegal drugs to catch a drug dealer.
There are many different techniques used in a sting operations. “The most common technique for sting operations directed at drug dealing in various environments is the reverse sting, also called a ‘buy-and-bust’ (Lyman).” For instance, an officer pretends to be a drug dealer and sells to a customer to catch a person participating in illegal activities or poses as a prostitute to catch people trying
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A successful operation is only considered when it results in massive arrests, according to multiple studies (Lyman). Sting operations have short-term effects on drug dealing in the location where the sting occurred. A study showed that drug trafficking were significantly reduced, however, “it was displaced to other locations that were not part of the sting” (Lyman). Sting operations did not only reduced drug trafficking, but also reduced other crimes such as robbery.
All in all, sting operations are effective in deterring crimes in short-term, but there were no evidence that it was effective in long-term. Studies were not able to determine if sting operations were successful in long-term because it was done with other “responses.” The main drawbacks of having sting operations are entrapment concerns, deemed unethical, and it is very expensive. There are many moral and social concerns about sting operations, but sting operations proved to be effective in short-term of deterring
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Law enforcements would have to do everything to keep the streets clean from drugs and in order to do so, they have to “cut off supply of drugs by targeting traffickers and dealers, both wholesalers and street-corner drug dealers” (Lyman). Advocates suggests that “government take more aggressive measures to prevent drugs” (Lyman) in United States’ society and they would have to tighten the borders to prevent from drugs coming into America. Also, the government would have to “demand international cooperation in cutting off drug supplies by rewarding countries that crack down on drug growers” (Lyman) and traffickers.
Second approach is reducing demand by holding users accountable. Advocates argue that it is impossible to win war on drugs by cutting off supplies of illegal drugs. They suggest that our society needs to “convey the message that drug use is dangerous, unacceptable, and not chic” (Lyman). Also, to really improve the chances to win the war on drugs is to reduce the appetite for the drug users. They can reduce the appetite for drug users by testing people for drugs in the workforce. Testing people for drugs in the workforce has proven to be an effective deterrent

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