Huge hike in PSNI payments to informers sparks concern
The PSNI is handing over more than £1,000 every day to informants, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal.
This newspaper has learnt that the bill for paying people with information on criminal activity topped £400,000 in the last 12 months — one of the highest payouts of all UK police forces.
That total has risen by a third since last year, suggesting that increased intelligence is being used to counter serious and organised crime across Northern Ireland. The figures have shed new light on one of the most secretive areas of policing.
But questions will be raised over the value of the intelligence being gathered by detectives and the use of the controversial police tactics.
Police argue that spending money is a price worth paying for information they may not otherwise get — in some cases avoiding lengthy and costly investigations.
But opponents — notably Sinn Fein — say it is a dangerous world where the information is often unreliable.
According to PSNI documents, £405,115 was paid out during the 2009/10 financial year.
That is a significant rise on the previous year’s total of £299,000 and almost four times the £104,326 paid out in 2004/05.
It means police are handing over about £1,110 every day for information — in many cases to people with strong links to crime themselves.
The rising bill may indicate increasing success against serious crime, however others claim that money is being wasted because police don’t know where to focus their intelligence.
Police have refused to say why the payouts have risen sharply, with a spokesman saying the PSNI “does not discuss intelligence matters”. The PSNI also refused to release details on the number of informants or the highest amount paid to individual informants.
It is thought the PSNI bill does not include informants run by MI5 — many of whom are used to gather information on the dissident threat. DUP Policing Board member Jimmy Spratt said the payments were value for money.
“We will never know how many crimes have been solved or serious incidents stopped because of information and intelligence gathered in this way,” he said.
But Sinn Fein Policing Board member Alex Maskey has expressed his concern at the increased reliance on informants.
“Our party is very concerned at the big increase in this type of activity, and it appears to be greatly disproportionate,” he said.
“You have to ask, if there are such numbers engaged, then what is the outcome, what are the benefits of it all?”
The use of informants continues to be controversial. The supergrass trials of the 1980s saw suspects testify in court against alleged ex-comrades, but the trials ended in 1985 amid many doubts about the reliability of witnesses.
In 2007 a devastating report by former Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan revealed that RUC officers protected loyalist informants from probes into more than a dozen murders in the 1990s.
A PSNI spokesperson said: “Like any other police service… the Police Service of Northern Ireland cannot operate effectively nor can it fulfil its primary function to prevent and detect crime, unless it uses intelligence gathered from a range of sources.
“We have no doubt that intelligence sources under Police Service management have helped save lives and brought offenders to justice.”
One Comment