Police pay £280,000 to crime informants

Money paid out is closely monitored

LEICESTERSHIRE Police has paid out £280,000 to informants over the past five years, new figures show.

Informants can get anything from a few pounds for basic information on low-level crimes, up to several thousand pounds for details on serious offences and organised gangs.

Payments vary depending on the quality and reliability of information and officers insist it helps solve crimes.

But some critics say the tactic does “little to bring down the level of overall crime”.

Leicestershire’s Deputy Chief Constable Roger Bannister, who spoke on behalf the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said all payments are recorded and only a small number of senior officers are allowed to deal with informants.

He added: “The use of informants to assist in investigations is one resource used by police forces across the country to defend and protect the public.

“The intelligence provided helps to prevent and solve the most serious of crimes and is vital in bringing offenders to justice through the courts.

“This is a well-established and highly regulated tactic with the money paid to informants being very closely scrutinised.”

Police forces do not reveal how many people are on their informant registers and do not release details of successful convictions due to their duty to protect people from reprisals.

But it is understood sources include convicted offenders, prison inmates and those who have connections to crime through family, social or professional links.

Former undercover police officer Neil Wood said: “It can be effective for certain crimes but for others - such as the war on drugs - using informants merely ensures that the cycle of violence and brutality continues.

“Nobody wants to inform on the drug lords because of fears of violent reprisals, so it’s only the low-lying fruit that gets caught out - and the trade continues regardless.

“Nobody can call that effective. It does little to bring down the level of overall crime.”

The figures came to light in a BBC investigation which found 43 forces in England and Wales paid almost £20 million to informants - dubbed covert human intelligence sources - in the past five years.

The figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show the following payments by Leicestershire Police: 2011/12 – £37,155 2012-2013 – £60,643 2013-14 – £75,448 2014-15 – £84,733 2015-16 – £23,438 Police forces are audited on their use of informants and are inspected annually by the Office of Surveillance Commissioners to ensure they are not breaking the law.