Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist has revealed that policing the Just Stop Oil (JSO) protests in the past 13 weeks has cost The Met more than £7.7 million.
During an interview with Nick Ferrari on LBC, AC Twist said a total of 23,597 officer shifts had been dedicated to policing the 515 JSO marches across London at a cost of £7,729,086.20 .
Officers have made 271 arrests and issued 420 section 12 orders to clear the roads as quickly as possible during the three-months of action .
AC Twist said: “We added up the number of officers we have had to deploy for the 13 weeks of action Just Stop Oil has undertaken to disrupt London. All of those 23,500 shifts could have been better spent helping local communities in London.
“We know policing protest is part of policing in London, but this 13 weeks of continual activity has led to those numbers.
“What is important is it doesn’t stop here. In the autumn we arrested 750 people, and this time we arrested 271 people and charged 174. So we now have to work towards prosecutions and charges and some cases won’t be heard until 2025. We have a whole public order and crime team working on that. It is a significant amount of effort.
“Again, these are police who could have been doing other things.”
AC Twist was asked about what The Met has learned from the 13-weeks of action.
He said: “This is really unique in protest terms. The right to protest is part of any democratic society and critically important, but this isn’t protest, it’s crime. There is a difference.
“The right to protest is strongly protected, but when you get into deliberately causing serious disruption, that tips over into crime.
“In terms of what we have learned, the speed of response is essential, but that draws more people.
“We don’t want people taking the law into their own hands. Which is why we need to get there and take action quickly. And the law has changed on that and we have had to adapt to the new legislation.
“One of the challenges we have with JSO is it doesn’t say when it will protest and take action – it doesn’t engage. We need to ensure there is a quick response.”
They rounded off the Just Stop Oil discussion speaking about the changing tactics of the groups moving to slow walking.
AC Twist said: “If you are walking on the A40 Westway, it is clearly causing serious disruption. The right to protest is fundamental, but the right to disrupt others isn’t.
“Listeners need to understand and we need to be clear on the need to assess each situation. Where it is clear a small number of people are disrupting a large number of people, it is clear where the balance should be, and we would impose conditions and clear the road.
“What we saw in the autumn was people locking on or gluing on, and they were charged with highway obstruction. It is harder to make an offence of slow walking, which is why changes were made to the Public Order Act.”
