Do cops really go undercover at high schools?

28 comments

1. Yeah but it usually looked like a 30 year old in casual clothes and a backpack

2. They might go plain clothed, not in uniform, but they’re not going to send them in to pretend to be students and get intertwined in social circles.

3. Yeah no one could ever scope out a 24 year old cop in a high school classroom that just appeared out of nowhere and had some weird backstory.

4. No. You watch too much tv

5. Yeah Steve Buscemi tried to sell me drugs in high school (2004)

6. I know of at least one case, [in 2012 in Exeter, California](https://kmph.com/amp/archive/12-students-arrested-in-undercover-drug-bust-at-exeter-union-high-school).

7. 21 Jump Street is not an accurate protroyal of real police procedure, so no.

8. The most I saw was some kid that would always walk around asking if we had or wanted weed, and then would go talk to the school police officer (we had like 2,200-2,300 kids).

9. Ever see 21 jump street?

10. Does the oldest looking student smell like a cop?

11. We had one girl who was basically hired by the school resource deputy when she got in trouble for her boy friend’s weed. She would fool around with a bunch of guys, find out if they’re a dealer or just some average high schooler, then rat them out if the relationship wasn’t going well or rat out a friend if she wanted to keep it going, then she’d repeat the cycle with a new friend group until senior year.

12. Are you a teenage girl hoping Channing Tatum will show up to your classroom?

13. Your high school would need to be ground zero for some sort of major interstate crime for a police station to invest the resources and manpower to send a dude into a high school undercover

14. Maybe, but I do know my high school has at least 4-5 cops in the school during the school day, but they kinda just act like advanced hall monitors.

15. They just employ the high schoolers.

16. Yes

17. From personal experience as a student and staff member at a high school for about 20 years total, I have heard of a few times that a cop posed as a student (they would quietly be “transferred out” of school after a bust went down), but more often a student would be recruited by a cop to help track down the criminals.

18. I’m pretty sure this happened at my high school in the 90s.

19. Yes, there was a sad case that made reddit’s front page s while back. A cop took advantage of an autistic teen by saying something along the lines of I’ll be your only friend if you score me some weed.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=autism+undercover+cop+marijuana&oq=autism+undercover+cop+marijuana&aqs=chrome..69i57.10452j0j7&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

20. This actually happened at the high school I went to. One of my teachers during senior year told us that about 10-12 years prior, a cop went undercover because some students were involved in a huge drug ring.

21. It happens, but it isn’t common. Many primary and secondary schools keep a police presence on their campuses. It is my impression that whenever there is undercover law enforcement is present, they’re likely investigating fairly serious crimes.

    However, there *was* an undercover police officer at one of my very first jobs as an adult. It was the summer that I graduated high school, so I got a job at a sewing factory. Methamphetamine was absolutely a plague in this particular area at the time (very rural east Tennessee). On my first day, this guy dropped his unzipped backpack and a handgun fell out right in front of me and the plant manager, who only bothered to sternly tell the guy to leave it in his car next time. I’d go into the bathroom to find needles thrown in the urinals. Two people overdosed while on the clock during the very short time I worked there.

    The cop was *incredibly* obvious – a young, clean cut and well-spoken guy who could have been the poster boy for a PD recruiting advertisement. The plant manager’s wife was my manager, and she *loved* to gossip to anyone who was willing to listen. Apparently, several of the employees were major players in the local meth ring.

    I only worked there for about three weeks before I got another job, but within that time, there was a major drug bust at a private residencd. Several employees were arrested in that raid and the cop never returned. Hands down the worst job I’ve ever had and anytime it crosses my mind, it makes me extra thankful I eventually decided to go to college.

22. No, but we’ll go in as a long term sub to bust the drug dealing gang run by Winston Zeddemore moonlighting as the principal after his old gang got broken up by the EPA.

    Power perceived, is power achieved.

23. There was a new student halfway through my junior year who was very odd, and all his fashion choices and pop culture references were like 5 years out of date. At the time I didn’t think much about it, but looking back I wonder if he was a cop.

24. Yes, it absolutely does happen.

    https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/the-entrapment-of-jesse-snodgrass-116008/amp/

25. Undercover? No. However, we used to have marijuana raids monthly. It’s kinda funny now given that marijuana is legal in Illinois where I went to HS.

    Huge waste of time and money to arrest a kid over some small amount of bud.

26. No. I’m sure there are some rare cases but generally cops would just come in uniform. They would definitely stand out and be uncovered pretty easily.

27. At my high school it was common knowledge that undercovers would come through every so often, infiltrate social circles and result in many drug arrests. Most of these arrests were targeted at the major suppliers of the area, probably because they were selling large amount of cocaine, Marijuana, ecstacy, heroin, and meth to our school.

    When I say large amounts, I mean it. It was a very affluent school so not only were the kids using but also other people like older siblings, sometimes parents, etc.

    There were also routinely days when drug dogs would sweep through school but it was always when somebody had a big stash in their car. And we always had the impression they put on a show of a search but actually knew exactly what they were looking for.

    The more I think about it…the more like a movie it seems like, but it’s all true.

28. I’ve heard urban legend, but no credible stories.