'Shocking use of public money that could easily have been used for something better'
Policing the highly controversial Insulate Britain protests has cost Scotland Yard nearly £2m in the group's first four weeks of activity alone.
Figures obtained by
LBC show that between the September 13 and October 10, Insulate Britain protests cost the police £1,961,616.44 to manage and contain.
The cost of deploying vehicles was a further £22,000 and the overtime bill for officers on-site totalled more than £217,000.
LBC also found that on average, each protest costs £200,000 to police.
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It's a "shocking use of public money that could easily have been used for something better," said Andy Trotter, former Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the Metropolitan Police and former Chief Constable of the British Transport Police.
He continued: "That's the thing that really galls me most of all, it's the loss of officers from doing what they should be doing, rather than sitting out waiting for a demonstration that might occur.
"It doesn't surprise me that the detection rate for crime is so low because police officers are not getting on with investigating crime, let alone the huge amount of calls they have to go to."
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This comes as court documents last week said that the first three days of Insulate Britain protests had a cost of almost £900,000.
"The estimated, lower bound, costs of these protests on drivers are substantial, with the lowest still causing £20,124 in loss and the most impactful, so far, costing an estimated £324,107," argued Saira Kabir Sheikh QC.
"This does not account for any costs associated with missed appointments, disruption to manufacturing or retail, missed transportation slots at airports or ports, or the direct cost to police or National Highways of managing the incidents."
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