So you can hire a spy and pay him. Can somebody please explain to me what he is actually doing? I have never witnessed him providing any insights about the other cops. (at least until day 30) The only thing my spy does is receiving money.

He's only good on getting him killed.
So even while he never reports anything within more than 70days (not even about simple things like an alcohol problem of your cops) his sole existance seems to be enough for his fellow cops to kill him in a brutal and "creative" way if they find out. Given that he never reported anything I really wonder why they should do such a thing.

I guess the spy might be a good investment if you are on the greedy and quite dark side:
Doing really everything that the mob is asking you to do, regardless on how crazy it get's (e.g. ignoring a robbery with hostage taking in bright daylight while everyone is watching... )
never sharing any money with anyone
never giving anyone a free day
firing everyone the city hall wants fired regardless of any sense, morality or consequences
make so bad decisions that you get many of your cops killed thus dropping morale for everybody
... stuff like that.

Or to make a long story short: I guess as long as your cops like you, you'll *never* get any advantage from the spy. On the contrary he will get himself killed eventually and you'll loose a good cop and never stop wondering why they took such an offense about him although he never actually reported anything. :-\

I'm at day 80 now, taking care of my employes and all money invested in a spy was a complete waste of money. Even when one cop was turning on me because of a decision regarding a serial killer it wasn't my spy but my deputy who reported that to me!

So my recommendation would be: Just hands off the spy option. (At least as long as you play it with some heart in your breast.)

Nakor is pretty much right on.

Unless you're treating your employees very badly all the time there probably isn't any need for a snitch, and it will get them killed.

Yeah If I had known I wouldn't ever assign a snitch worst he gets killed randomly ignoring rank and professionalism, after he gets murder you can't even investigate and avenge his murder.

For the majority of the game, snitches work as Nakor says - they report when they think you're about to get shafted by your people, and when they do report to the Union, the snitch lets you know who dobbed you in (so you can take care of them or buy them off).

As Nakor says you won't ever get dobbed in unless you're mean, as corrupt as possible and greedy.

Towards the end of the game snitches actually have an additional function - they let you know the officer's political preferences once this becomes important. But you can always hire them at that point (the game lets you know when you reach this point).

EEEExcellent!

thanks a lot for the explanations

this is really helping out

At a certain point in the game (before you need to know your officers political views) there will be a small piece of paper next to the three newspaper every morning, indicating your relationship with City Hall and the Mafia.

If you have or hire a snitch at that point it will also show your relationship with the department.