DrugBuyers.Com: Hotline set up by DEA

Someone filing a false report to the DEA can get five years in federal prison for each count. If someone is prosecuted due to a tip, i don't think that the call itself and its information can be used directly in (any) court unless they get the caller on the witness stand and the Defendant has an opportunity to confront his or her acccuser.

Many places have CrimeStoppers hotlines where anonymous tips that LEAD TO convictions can get money rewards and they protect the snitch's identity. But they could only get a conviction (and the snitch get the reward) if the information given LEADS TO a conviction. Unless the caller is willing to be state's witness and testify against the accused, the recording of the tip is considered hearsay under federal rules of evidence and the tape would be totally inadmissible unless the caller was willing to testify and be cross examined by the Defendant's lawyer(s).

Almost all of the time, the way it works is that they don't try to put the tipster on the witness stand. The tipster wants to be anonymous. But they can use whatever information they're given to help them build a case. Some states even allow search warrants to be issued based on information from anonymous tips. Scary!

But information from a tipster is not in the same catgeory as information obtained illegally where the "fruit of the poisonous tree" principle applies. It's legal to run those hotlines. It's illegal (and will lead to dismissal or acquittal) if they build their case on what they find during an illegal search.

Whether or not the anonymity of the tipster is protected when they call state CrimeStoppers lines would depend on the state's laws. I don't know if there's any federal cases or codes to be a precedent or governing rule if the DEA brings charges in federal court based on an anonymous tip. Federal is not state.

Someone should call the DEA hotline and ask about confidentiality guarantees and whether there's any specific law or regulation that would protect their identity being revealed and protect someone from suing them. If anyone does that, and they say privacy and immunity from lawsuits are guaranteed, then ask DEA for the specific law (U.S.C. XXXX.XXX, or Public Law Y-Z, or a Supreme Court Case's name and year). Post that info here and i'll look at it.

If there's no federal law guaranteeing the anonymity and freedom from liability of the tipster, then it's likely that the caller to DEA would have any protections written into the laws of their state.

Because it's a DEA hotline, federal law would take precedence over state law but if there's no federal law on it, then state law would apply unless there was an appeal to the federal courts ... and then the federal courts would MAKE UP THE LAW.

If the caller happened to be in one state and the entity they snitched on is in a different state, and if those two states had different laws regarding anonymous tips, then it could get complicated.

It's a common mistake to think that federal courts ignore state laws. If there's no federal law governing, then federal judges are supposed to try to respect the laws of the state(s) as long as that does not run counter to the U.S. Constitution as interpreted by the federal courts.

Sound complicated? It is.

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Your mileage may vary ...