- Tip-offs from police informants led to almost 400 arrests in the past seven years
- Local informants led to the seizure of £1.4 million worth of drugs and criminal property
- See the top ten forces who spent the most on informants between 2008 AND 2013 below
- Would you ever tip off the police? Take part in our poll
TIP-OFFS from police informants have led to almost 400 arrests and the seizure of £1.4 million worth of drugs and criminal property during the past seven years, the JEP can reveal.
The force paid just over £54,000 to a total of 48 informants between 2007 and last year, helping officers to make 391 arrests for 565 offences and secure convictions for offences including drug dealing and other serious crimes.
Today, Detective Chief Inspector Lee Turner said that paying for intelligence was a vital part of modern-day policing which has helped to crack cases that would otherwise have gone unsolved.
Details of how informants – officially known as covert human intelligence sources – are recruited and paid in the Island was not disclosed to the JEP for operational reasons but Det Chief Insp Turner moved to reassure the public that strict legislative procedures were in place.
He added that the amount of money paid to informants is assessed on a ‘case-by-case basis’ according to guidelines set out in a nationally recognised matrix that takes into account the offence, the risk involved and the results obtained.
Metropolitan Police: £9,098,058.
West Midlands Police: £1,461,311
Greater Manchester Police: £991,681.28
South Yorkshire Police: £893,375
Northumbria Police: £809,416
Thames Valley Police: £764,509
West Yorkshire: £736,684.70
Lancashire Constabulary: £672,678
Nottinghamshire Police: £605,508
Devon and Cornwall Police: £564,352
The Force Intelligence Bureau, which collates and disseminates all forms of information that comes through the police, received over 7,000 intelligence reports in 2014 – 900 of which came from informants.
‘Such information can be of value at various stages of law-enforcement activity, ranging from early covert activity and intelligence assessment all the way through to post-conviction confiscations,’ Det Chief Insp Turner said.
‘The use of police informants has been around for a very long time and the value, challenges and risks of such covert work requires increasingly significant attention and effort,’ he added.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Jersey) Law 2005 covers the authorisation and use of secret intelligence sources by the police. The force also abides by the UK Home Office Codes of Practice.
This year the States police have a budget of £10,000 to pay informants for information.
Det Chief Insp Turner added: ‘The figures clearly demonstrate the importance of such activity, and the value that law enforcement places on such individuals is reflected in the significant effort that goes into assessing and minimising various risks, including the protection of those involved.
‘As with other covert law-enforcement methods, working practices cannot be publicised but hopefully the above figures demonstrate the great importance of such work, undertaken to very high national standards within a rigorous legislative and supervisory framework.’
