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((Use dmy dates|date=July 2023))
((Short description|Deceptive way to catch a person committing a crime))
((mi|
((Globalize|article|USA|2name=the United States|date=October 2018))((More citations needed|date=June 2022))
))
[[File:US Navy 010717-N-1350W-001 NCIS agent prepares sting operation.jpg|thumb|[[Naval Criminal Investigative Service]] preparations for an [[MDMA|ecstasy]] sting]]

In law enforcement, a '''sting operation''' is a [[deceptive]] operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an [[Undercover operation|undercover]] [[law enforcement]] officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather evidence of the suspect's wrongdoing. [[Mass media]] journalists occasionally resort to sting operations to record video and broadcast to expose criminal activity.<ref>((cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jun/02/sleaze-journalist-sting-debate|title=Journalism: to sting or not to sting?|first=Roy|last=Greenslade|newspaper=The Guardian |date=2 June 2013|via=www.theguardian.com))</ref>

Sting operations are common in many countries, such as the United States,<ref>((cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/human-rights-watch/watch-fbi-targets-america_b_5613151.html|title=Watch: FBI Targets American Muslims in Abusive Counterterrorism "Sting Operations"|work=The Huffington Post|date=23 July 2014))</ref> but they are not permitted in some countries, such as Sweden or France.<ref>[http://www.hogstadomstolen.se/Avgoranden/Vagledande-domar-och-beslut-prejudikat/2007/] Swedish Supreme Court, verdict B 5039-06.</ref> There are prohibitions on conducting certain types of sting operations, such as in the Philippines, where it is illegal for law enforcers to pose as drug dealers to apprehend buyers of illegal drugs.<ref>((cite news |last1=Luna |first1=Franco |title=PDEA and PNP scrap 'miss encounter tag on Commonwealth shootout, will wait for probe findings |url=https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/02/25/2080329/pdea-and-pnp-scrap-misencounter-tag-commonwealth-shootout-will-wait-probe-findings |access-date=25 February 2021 |work=The Philippine Star |date=25 February 2021))</ref>

==Examples==
* Luring [[fugitives]] out of hiding by sending them mail telling them that they have won a vacation or sports tickets in a competition, which can be collected.<ref name="sting">((cite news |title=From fake weddings to free flights, elaborate sting operations have ensnared suspects around the world |date=11 June 2021 |author=Antonia Noori Farzan |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/06/08/sting-operations/))</ref> In an 1985 sting known as [[Operation Flagship]], US Marshals arrested over 100 fugitives by posing as a television company inviting them to the [[Washington Convention Center]] to claim free tickets for a [[Washington Redskins]] match.<ref name="sting"/> Another established a fictitious airline offering free tickets, arresting those who came to the fake checkin desk at [[Miami International Airport]].<ref name="sting"/> Such arrests are significantly safer than arresting the fugitive at their home, as the target will often be unarmed and off-guard.<ref name=":8">((Cite book |last1=Clark |first1=Jerry |title=On the Lam: A History of Hunting Fugitives in America |last2=Palattella |first2=Ed |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2019 |isbn=9781442262591 |location=Lanham, Maryland |pages=135–137))</ref>
* Deploying a [[bait car]] to catch a car thief
* Setting up a seemingly vulnerable [[Honeypot (computing)|honeypot]] computer to lure and gain information about [[Security cracking|hackers]]
* Arranging for someone under the [[legal drinking age|legal drinking]] or [[legal smoking age|smoking age]] to ask an adult to buy an [[alcoholic beverage]] or [[tobacco]] products for them<ref>((cite web|url=http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=1878103&nav=9qrxNETb |publisher=kesq.com |title=Palm Springs, Coachella Valley – Weather, News, Sports: Special Report: Local police crack down on adults buying booze for minors |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115202841/http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=1878103&nav=9qrxNETb |archive-date=15 January 2009 ))</ref>
* Passing off weapons or explosives (whether fake or real), to a would-be terrorist
* Posing as:
** someone who is seeking [[Illegal drug trade|illegal drugs]], [[contraband]], or [[child pornography]], to catch a supplier (or as a supplier to catch a customer)
** a child in a [[chat room]] to identify a potential online [[child predator]]
**  a potential customer of illegal [[prostitution]], or as a prostitute to catch a would-be customer
** a [[hitman]] to catch customers and solicitors of [[murder-for-hire]]; or as a customer to catch a hitman
** a spectator of an [[Dog fighting in the United States|illegal dogfighting ring]]
** a [[documentary]] [[film crew]] to lure a [[pirate]] to the country where a crime was committed.<ref name="sting" />

== Criticism ==

=== Ethical and legal concerns ===
Sting operations are fraught with ethical concerns over whether they constitute [[entrapment]]. Law enforcement may have to be careful not to provoke the commission of a crime by someone who would not otherwise have done so. Additionally, in the process of such operations, the police often engage in the same [[crimes]], such as buying or selling drugs, soliciting prostitutes, etc. In [[common law]] jurisdictions, the defendant may invoke the defense of [[entrapment]].

Contrary to [[List of common misconceptions#Law, crime, and military|popular misconceptions]], however, in the United States of America, rules against entrapment do not prohibit [[undercover police]] officers from posing as criminals or denying that they are police.<ref>((cite magazine |url=http://www.slate.com/id/1003657 |title=What Is Entrapment? |magazine=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] ))</ref> Entrapment is typically a defense only when suspects are pressured into being implicated in a crime they would probably not have committed otherwise, but the legal definition of this pressure varies greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

For example, if undercover officers coerced a potential suspect into manufacturing illegal drugs to sell them, the accused could use entrapment as a defense. However, if a suspect is already manufacturing drugs and police pose as buyers to catch them, entrapment usually has not occurred.

==In popular culture==
The term "sting" was popularized by the 1973 [[Robert Redford]] and [[Paul Newman]] movie ''[[The Sting]]'', though the film is not about a police operation: it features two [[wikt: grifter|grifter]]s and their attempts to [[confidence trick|con]] a mob boss out of a large sum of money.

In 1998, three agencies joined forces to conduct a sting operation where they successfully recovered the [[Honduras lunar sample displays|Honduras Goodwill Moon Rock]] from a vault in Miami. The sting operation was known as "Operation Lunar Eclipse" and the participating agencies were [[NASA Office of Inspector General]], the [[United States Postal Inspection Service]] and [[United States Customs Service|U.S. Customs]]. The moon rock was offered to the undercover agents for ((US$|5))&nbsp;million. Journalist [[Christina Reed]] broke that story in Geotimes in 2002.<ref>((cite news |url=http://www.geotimes.org/sept02/NN_moon.html |publisher=American Geological Institute |work=Geotimes |title=Moon rocks for sale! |author=Christina Reed |date=September 2002 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030518104456/http://www.geotimes.org/sept02/NN_moon.html |archive-date=18 May 2003 ))</ref><ref>((cite web |url=http://www.geotimes.org/nov04/trends.html |publisher=[[American Geological Institute]] |work=Geotimes |title= In Search of the Goodwill Moon Rocks: A Personal Account |author=Joseph Richard Gutheinz |author-link=Joseph Richard Gutheinz |date=November 2004))</ref> Operation Lunar Eclipse and the Moon Rock Project were the subject of the book ''[[The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks]]'' by Joe Kloc.

==See also==
* ((Annotated link |Advance-fee scam))
* ((Annotated link |ATF fictional sting operations))
* ''[[The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks]]''
* ((Annotated link |Edison divorce torture plot))
* ((Annotated link |Fence (criminal)))
* ((Annotated link |Honey trapping))
* ((Annotated link |Honeypot (computing)))
* ((Annotated link |Informant))
* ((Annotated link |List of scholarly publishing stings))
* [[Mr. Big (police procedure)]]
* [[Murder of Rachel Hoffman]], the execution of a police informant during a sting operation 
* [[Narada Sting Operation]]
* [[Operation Tennessee Waltz]]
* [[Possession of stolen goods]]
*[[John David Roy Atchison]] (1954–2007), Assistant US Attorney and children's sports coach, committed suicide in prison after being arrested in a sting operation and charged with soliciting sex from a 5-year-old girl 
* [[Stephen Joseph Ratkai]], arrested and convicted of [[espionage]] in [[Canada]] after a successful sting operation
* [[The Sting (The Legend of Korra)|The Sting]]
* [[Vigilantism in the United States of America]]

==References==
((Reflist))

== External links ==
* [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/21/government-agents-directly-involved-us-terror-plots-report Spencer Ackerman: Government agents 'directly involved in most high-profile US terror plots. Human Rights Watch documents 'sting' operations. Report raises questions about post-9/11 civil rights], [[The Guardian]], 21 July 2014.

((Espionage))
((Authority control))

((DEFAULTSORT:Sting Operation))
[[Category:Sting operation| ]]
[[Category:Law enforcement techniques]]

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Advance-fee scam (edit)
Edison divorce torture plot (edit)
Fence (criminal) (edit)
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Informant (edit)
List of scholarly publishing stings (edit)
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Sting operation (edit)
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