An agent provocateur works on behalf of a police force or government agency to encourage members of dissident groups to engage in illegal or controversial activities. The agent provocateur may enter a group or organization as a member, gaining the trust of others in the group as well as its leadership. Alternatively, agent provocateurs may enter the group during a public demonstration and either engage in illegal or violent activity or actively lead others in such activity. In both cases, the goal is to damage the group's public image and facilitate the arrest of group leadership and members so as to undermine the group's structure.
During espionage operations, the agent provocateur may also act as informant, making his employer aware of the group's activities. Once the agent establishes his influence within the group, he can begin to encourage the group into behavior that it may otherwise not have considered. Once the group's plans solidify, the government may have enough evidence to at the very least charge the group's leadership with conspiracy. In cases where an agent provocateur enters a demonstration in process, that agent may simply take advantage of the heat of the moment and encourage marchers or protesters to commit acts of vandalism. In both cases, in addition to the legal problems now faced by the group and its members, the organization's public reputation will be tarnished. The group may also be liable for paying civil damages to victims of illegal behavior carried out by the group, sometimes effectively bankrupting the organization.
Governments and law enforcement, often in the name of national security and public safety, are known to construct organizations and circumstances that can encourage individuals with anti-government tendencies or unpopular political beliefs to reveal or incriminate themselves. One well-known way of accomplishing this is through a sting operation in which a group or individual is targeted by government or law enforcement personnel who approach them with the opportunity to commit an illegal act. False flag operations, in which law enforcement/government agencies set up organizations that appear to have an opposing political motive, are a similar form of espionage. The use of an agent provocateur in these operations is a dangerous yet effective way for governments to achieve their goal of squelching dissent or, in some cases, actually preventing violence by a group with such tendencies. Agencies that use such tactics must be careful, however, as there is the risk that a judge may rule their actions to be entrapment and dismiss the charges against group leadership and members.