Staffordshire Police pays out more than £200,000 to informants over three years

The force handed £209,949.73 to confidential informants, known as covert human intelligence sources (CHIS) in total, and in the last year alone, 2022/23, the force cashed out £91,041.73.

Informants are used by police to tackle serious and organised crime and Staffordshire Police say the information is often ‘invaluable’ when tackling organised crime.

But local policing representatives said they needed more information about the effectiveness of the spending to understand its benefits.

Chairman of Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel, and East Staffordshire borough councillor, Bernard Peters said: “We need more context around it, don’t we? What have been the benefits, I don’t know what the benefits have been.

“I haven’t seen the article, you know how many convictions, how many crimes have been prevented.”

Responding to a Freedom of Information request, police refused to say the number of informants it had paid in the three-year period, and what was the largest payment it made to a source.

However, it is understood that informants can be paid anything between £20 and £15,000 for information leading to successful arrests.

Payments to informants have been a source of controversy in the past. In 2020, it was revealed that forces across the UK had paid informants more than £13 million in five years.

Speaking at the time, Neil Woods, a former undercover police officer and now a board member of Law Enforcement Action Partnership, questioned the technique.

He said: “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.”

In a statement, Staffordshire Police said: “The use and recruitment of informants is a legitimate and closely regulated police tactic, particularly in cases involving serious and organised crime and other offences that pose a serious risk of harm and financial loss to the public.

"Many of these investigations rely on the use of information from informants and it is often invaluable when tackling organised criminality.

“The use of informants by the police is well known nationally and is governed by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, 2000.

"We must stress that there is a very strict process in place to ensure that this incredibly sensitive area of policing is carefully managed and extreme care is taken to ensure that informants are only used when deemed absolutely necessary in the prevention and detection of crime.”