By Ashley Young
The Metropolitan Police spent over £4m on informants over the last five years, a freedom of information investigation conducted by Portsmouth University journalism department has revealed.
The FOI response found that the Met Police spent £4,363,226 between 2014-19.
Behind them was Scotland police who spent £1,342,915 on informants over the same period. Informants are used by the police to find out information on criminal activity such as murder, burglaries and drug rings. Thames Valley Police spent £749, 853.26- the third highest in the country
Neil Wood, a former undercover policeman, said in his experience about “90 per cent of informants are used in drug-related offences”.
Neil, who is now CEO of Law Enforcement Action Partnership, rallying for drug reform policy, said: “Using police informants for other crimes such as burglaries and theft is the most cost-effective form of policing you can do.”
But he also points out that what informants are mostly used for does not reduce the crime in the area.
“If you arrest a drug dealer on the information of an informant, you remove a drug dealer.
“All it does is create an opportunity for another drug dealer; crime doesn’t reduce,” Neil added.
Informants, he said, can be paid anything between £20 and £15,000 for sharing information leading to successful arrestThe Met spent on average £872,645 a year, peaking at £970,248 in 2018/19.
A senior officer in the Met Police, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “If the information from an informant leads to the recovery of firearms or incarceration of serious criminals this can only be a positive thing, even if the informant receives financial benefits.”
A spokesperson from Taxpayers’ Alliance said: “It is critical that there is transparency in how taxpayers’ money is spent, even in the murky world of crime-fighting.
“All bodies, including the police, ought to be aware of the public interest in knowing where their cash is being spent, especially given that taxpayers are being asked to pay record amounts this year