The amount paid to police informants during the past five years has plummeted by almost two-thirds. Details within the information release showed each district’s criminal investigations manager, and other approved senior police officers, could authorise payments to informants. In response to further questions from the ODT, Detective Inspector Tim Anderson said, in an emailed response, that payments to informants were covered by existing police budgets. However, questions about the steep decline in informant payments, how payments were assessed and determined, whether patched gang members were paid informants and if that created concerns about police funds being funnelled into criminal activity went unanswered. "Police do not release information about the operation of their informant programme as to do so would only arm criminals with information necessary to identify informers," Det Insp Anderson’s response said.

Source: Otago Daily Times October 28, 2016 17:08 UTC