As you might know, when the police wants to infiltrate a group, community etc, they need to make their mole/spy be believable in the eyes of those who he will spy on. This asset can then be used, in a key position, to gain the trust of that dissident community, and when members of that community have delicate info they might send it to the spy/undercover agent. The agent then reports this to his superiors in order to moderate the negative impact of that info going public (generate a derailing narrative that includes half-truths).

One second major use of the spy/asset is that by gaining the trust of the community he then can manipulate and misdirect their anger of the public at superflous issues, in critical moments. This means that the asset will spew bullshit day to day political rhetoric but when it comes to a crucial issue, the asset will stay silent.