Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Why are police spending thousands on Stonewall subscriptions?

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When police kit out their patrol cars in rainbow flags or when officers don pride polo shirts, two questions spring to mind: Should the police be doing this? And how much does it cost? Now, we have some answers to the second of these questions.

Among the top spenders on supporting and promoting LGBT causes (perhaps unsurprisingly given their high-profile involvement in Pride marches) was the Met Police. London’s police force spent £1,000 on 150 police ‘rainbow’ epaulettes; another £1,000 on ‘police with pride’ printed polo shirts; and over £300 on rainbow wristbands. The Met also spent £700 on stickers for its pride vehicle for 2020.

Perhaps controversially, the Met revealed it has spent around £12,500 on membership of Stonewall since 2017. Police subscriptions to Stonewall were a common – and costly – theme among forces across Britain, as revealed by the freedom of information requests made by Fair Cop. Merseyside police spent £7,500 on Stonewall subscriptions and donations. North Wales paid £1,500 for Stonewall membership. Dorset Police paid Stonewall £2,500. Leicestershire Police also spent £2,500 on Stonewall membership in the last year – and a total of £9,500 on Stonewall since 2010. Under its ‘LGBT expenditure’ from 2010 to 2019, the force says it spent a total of £15,000.

In Avon and Somerset, for the most recent financial year, the force spent a total of £900 on rainbow branding and £4,200 on conferences and events. The force said a total of £2,500 was used for subscriptions and donations to LGBT+ organisations. Gwent police were also big spenders on ‘supporting and promoting LGBT groups and causes’. These activities set the force back £14,000 in the last three years. It also spent £700 on a flag and what it called ‘engagement items with rainbow branding’ in one year alone.

This is just the spending we know about, and it is likely to be higher given that some police forces did not respond to FoI requests.

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