Assumed names to be given to Agents Assumed names to be given to Agents

These memorandums, from ACP Chomley and dated the 12.04.188, were sent to various towns within the North Eastern District with instructions that the identities of all the secret agents working for the police were to be kept confidential. Code names were given to all those agents and police officers were asked to refer to them only by these names. In the period the Kellys went into hiding, the police employed secret agents and search parties to track down the outlaws. By late 1879 & early 1880, disputes over Secret Service monies started to arise. ACP Nicolson argued that search parties were ineffective and costly: he believed that the agents, the majority of whom belonged to the same social class as the outlaws, were a far more effective way of procuring information.