The amount paid to police informants during the past five years has plummeted by almost two-thirds.
Figures released by police under the Official Information Act show the total sum paid to informants had fallen 62% during the past five years from $416,114 in the 2011-12 financial year to $156,362 last year.
Police refused to release the figures paid out in each of the 12 police districts, saying "such information would not be in the public interest".
Providing "more detailed information about location and amounts would indicate where police activity does or does not occur", the response to the Otago Daily Times request said.
"Therefore this request is withheld ... as police believe the release of this information would be likely to prejudice the maintenance of the law, including the prevention, investigation and detection of offences and the right to a fair trial."
Details within the information release showed each district’s criminal investigations manager, and other approved senior police officers, could authorise payments to informants. However, a request for the criteria which must be met before a payment is made was ignored.
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.
"The release of such information would not be in the public interest."
