The Brits should be rightly outraged that their police force is not only being tied down in investigating the illegal activities of News Ltd. and the divergence of resources from other policing activities, but the cost to taxpayers. The latest estimate is £40 million. There really can be no stopping now that the cat is out of the bag!
Kit Malthouse, Boris Johnson's deputy mayor for policing and crime in London, disclosed the figures to the inquiry on Thursday as he issued a robust defence of his review of the level of police resources tied up in the investigations, amid concern that this would be to the detriment of the detection of "serious and heinous crimes" such as murder, rape and paedophilia.
Malthouse told the inquiry that the Scotland Yard resources dedicated to unearthing alleged wrongdoing by journalists had grown "very significantly" as he contrasted the £40m anticipated cost of Operation Weeting, the inquiry into phone hacking at the News of the World, and related investigations, with the £36m annual spend for detecting child abuse cases.
He told the inquiry that 150 Met officers were currently engaged in the various investigations related to alleged phone hacking, computer hacking (Operation Tuleta) and illegal payments to police and other public officials (Operation Elveden).
Malthouse said this number was forecast to rise to 200 – the equivalent of "eight murder squads" – at a time when just 27 police officers were engaged in "tracking down paedophiles".
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