just to put it into perspective (these figures are taken from publically available documents of the Police authority, press releases and other Government documents and are from independently audited sources)
the East Anglian cops quoted a total cost of £18,000 for closing down the rave last July (a lot less than people thought it would be!)
The cost of the anti-rave intelligence unit is £120,000 per year (so £10,000 per month).
However, the cost of dealing with a single injury, fatal or serious road traffic collision is £100,000 per incident. Now this is quoted as the cost to all 3 services plus the NHS – so take £25,000 as the cost to the cops for each prang.
There are about 3 or 4 of these incidents every week, usually on the A12 and A14 trunk roads. so thats £100,000 per week dealing with major accidents.
Dealing with Operation Sumac (the murder in 2006 of 5 prostitutes) cost the cops £1,500,000. They only got a fraction of this back from the Home Office, but of course Suffolk Constabulary hasn’t gone bankrupt!
The cost of stopping raves is just a drop in the ocean to the Police. They could afford to put the riot squad in every weekend if they wanted to.
Those people who think “suicide rigs” and stubborness will work are unfortunately on a losing battle – they will run out of resources long before the cops will.
Now those with a head for figures may realise the £18,000 spent from the public purse could probably pay for several tolerated legal events – this is true and even the cops / councils realise this – but the sticking point is with our current image, locals will whinge about “the authorities caving in to druggies and criminals and subsidising them.”
I’d happily rather see my council tax or PAYE tax / VAT on goods spent for something like a British “Ungdomshus” or a “safe zone” in Thetford Forest – but sadly a lot of other people would currently disagree..
