THE PSNI has spent just under £300,000 (€350,500) on payments to informers, the third highest rate of payments by any police force in the UK.
London’s Metropolitan Police spent £1.86 million while the Greater Manchester Police spent just under £330,000 on covert human intelligence sources (CHIS), as informers are known.
The figures were released to the BBC under Freedom of Information legislation.
Sinn Féin policing board member Martina Anderson said the board, which oversees the PSNI, should have been told first.
A spokesman for the policing board last night backed the expenditure. “The whole area of intelligence and how it is operated and managed is of critical importance to securing public confidence. The policy and procedure for the authorisation and use of CHIS has been subject to ongoing scrutiny.
“It is the function of the chief surveillance commissioner to review the use of surveillance, agents, informants, undercover officers and decryption,” the spokesman added.
“ The board’s human rights adviser has full access to the reports of the surveillance commissioner and the PSNI response. A detailed assessment of police compliance is published in the board’s human rights annual reports.”
DUP policing board member Peter Weir said he was convinced the money was well spent. “Informers are a valuable weapon in the fight against criminals,” he said.
“The information that they provide is used to prevent crimes from taking place or to apprehend those responsible for law-breaking and criminal activity. In a Northern Ireland context, a lot of the information provided by informants is used in the battle against terrorists who endanger lives and property.”
Mr Weir added: “As far as my DUP colleagues and I on the policing board are concerned, this is money well spent. We support this necessary expenditure as a key element in the fight against crime and terrorism.”
The SDLP’s Dolores Kelly, also a member of the board, said it was naive to suggest that police services should not make such payments.