For starters, you have to understand that cops never, ever under any circumstance like to admit publicly when they have royally screwed up.

And that explains why, even as 23-year-old Rachel Hoffman was being laid to rest - a murder victim in a drug sting gone horribly awry, the Tallahassee Police Department was still reacting to the case as if it had nothing to do with this young woman’s demise.

Hoffman, a graduate of Florida State University was abducted during a Tallahasseee Police Department drug investigation. Her body was found several days later and two suspects - the focus of the original drug investigation - have been arrested.

By any reasonable standard in the hierarchy of drug trafficking Rachel Hoffman would never be confused with Pablo Escobar.

To be sure, Hoffman was no angel, having been busted on drug charges involving the possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana and ecstasy. And, in looking to catch a break on a possible jail term, without the knowledge of her attorney, Hoffman agreed to become an informant in making a case against two alleged drug dealers under suspicion, Deneilo Bradshaw, 23 and Andrea Green 25.

As part of the drug sting, Hoffman allegedly arranged to buy 1,500 ecstasy pills, some cocaine and a gun from Bradshaw and Green.

But something went horribly wrong. At the public park where the drug deal was supposed to go down, Hoffman called investigators to say the location had been changed. And despite warnings from detectives not to leave the park, Hoffman hung up. Her body was found two days later.

Rightfully so, the Tallahasseee Police Department has been criticized for its handling of the case.

Why was Hoffman not kept in visual contact with detectives during the operation?

Why was a young woman, who was hardly a career criminal, thrust into such a potentially dangerous criminal investigation?

Why did she hang up? Or did someone do it for her? We’ll probably never know.

And why was her legal counsel not consulted and informed about his client’s dealings with a police agency, which would have influenced the status of the criminal charges she was facing?

Meanwhile, a Tally department spokesman attempted to shift the blame to Hoffman for her own murder, citing the terminated phone call and the fact she violated “protocol” by leaving the park.

But how do police officials know she left the park voluntarily?

This was a young woman, a civilian untrained in police investigative procedures thrust into the middle of a drug sting because she was driven by anxiety over her own legal problem.

The Palm Harbor area woman was laid to rest earlier this week.

And perhaps the police will cynically argue that aside from the homicide thing, Rachel Hoffman turned out to be one swell informant.

After all, Bradshaw and Green are in jail aren’t they?