According to The Metro (http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=42559&in_page_id=34) 276 police officers, as of March 2007, were on suspension or 'gardening leave' while being investigated for alleged wrong-doing.The total bill to the tax payer for this amounts to around £8million per year.
icLiverpool, a short while later, (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=suspended-officers-cost-police--500k&method=full&objectid=18850236&siteid=50061-name_page.html) mentioned one police officer who had spent 774 days suspended on full pay before being jailed.
Can Blair really claim to be tough on the causes of crime when even our police force can't be trusted?
There are, of course, two things that we need to consider here, other than the drain on funding that the tax payer provides to the police.
Firstly, to what extent is this just the tip of the iceberg? For every one of the 276 officers currently suspended, how many more are being investigated and how many are getting away with their own wrong doing?
Secondly, with crime rates rising across the UK, you have to wonder how much is due to police officers being more interested in lining their own pockets than in solving crimes?
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