Well....the term means Vertrauensmann, or undercover 'agent'. There's also the associated terms of V-Person, V-Frau, V-Leute.
So, it can be a policeman, or just a regular citizen who has some arrangement with the police....to provide 'insider' knowledge of a suspicious group or political organization.
If you wanted a better English word? Agent provocateur or 'snitch' would work.
The key trouble with V-men? Most Germans always believe it's a policeman....when it could be a guy who got into legal trouble, and the government rigged up an arrangement for this person to stage themselves within a group....to gather intelligence.
I hate using it as an example, but in 1919....the Bavarian Secret Police found a young Austrian-German war vet, who was agreeable to join a newly established political party to get insider knowledge of the group. Within a month, the gentleman would be established to lead the party for the two-and-a-half decades.
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