THAMES Valley Police (TVP) are among the top-spending UK forces when it comes to informants.

Between 2014 - 2019, TVP spent a total of £749,850 on sources providing information, according to figures from the University of Portsmouth journalism department.

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It was found that police forces across the UK have spent at least £13.6 million on informants over the last five years.

Some critics have labelled it as an "ineffective use of money" while others argue it is "cost-effective."

The Metropolitan Police, the country's largest force, were the biggest spenders, paying out a total of £4million over the last five years.

Informants are used by the police to find out information on criminal activity such as murder, burglaries and drug rings.

A spokesman from Thames Valley Police said: "The percentage of spending on informants in Thames Valley Police in 2018/19 was 0.038 per cent of the total budget.

"Paying informants is just one of the tools that police have to gain information and is a very cost effective tactic."

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Neil Wood, a former undercover policeman, said that in his experience, about "90 per cent of informants are used in drug-related offences."

Neil, who is now CEO of Law Enforcement Action Partnership, rallying for drug reform policy, said: "Using police informants for other crimes such as burglaries and theft is the most cost-effective form of policing you can do."

But he also pointed out that what informants are mostly used for does not reduce the crime in the area.

"If you arrest a drug dealer on the information of an informant, you remove a drug dealer," said Neil.

"All it does is create an opportunity for another drug dealer; crime doesn't reduce."

Informants, he said, can be paid anything between £20 and £15,000 for sharing information leading to successful arrests.

A senior officer in the Met Police, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "If the information from an informant leads to the recovery of firearms or incarceration of serious criminals this can only be a positive thing, even if the informant receives financial benefits."

The Met spent a whopping £970,000 on informants in 2018/19, £100,000 more than the previous year.

Police Scotland were the second-highest, paying more than £1.3 million to informants between 2014 and 2019, while West Midlands Police forked out £925,000.