In December 2022, Andrew Snowden confirmed that the replacement Lancashire police hats cost the public £40,000 but denied having any specific information on how this cost was attributed (per hat/rank etc).
The FOI was sent to Lancashire police, who have confirmed the following
The decision to change the Police hats was made between the Chief Constable and The Police and Crime Commissioner. No official public agreement was sought.
Therefore, Andrew Snowden was a key decision-maker of this wasteful expenditure, and although this is public money and plays no part in improving our police force, no notice or agreement was sought from the public.
Lancashire police have now provided a breakdown of the expenditure and have confirmed that the total cost of this unnecessary hat replacement scheme actually cost the taxpayer £58,430.22, a staggering 18,430.22 more than what Andrew Snowden stated.
Considering that Andrew Snowden’s role is to account for the expenditure of Lancashire police, it is concerning how his figure was out by a whopping 42.5% or £18,500, as in December 2022, Andrew Snowden confirmed that he committed £40,000 for new hats.
In December 2022, Andrew Snowden made the following comment
I think the baseball caps were a backward step in how modern policing is presented given that now more than ever the values of respect, pride and professionalism are so important.
So, whoever made the initial decision to move to baseball caps (at no doubt a similar wasteful cost exercise), Andrew has, on his own merit, blown over £58,000 of public money to satisfy his own personal view, not the view of the public.
Andrew seems to think the recent bad press of the UK police can be fixed by putting new hats on them.
From the Lancashire police disclosure, they confirmed that Andrew Snowden authorised this funding without public knowledge or agreement. He never popped the question to the public before making his decision and then gloated to the public about his decision over the new hats, but it took a long-winded FOI to get to the truth about the costs to the public purse.
Finally, in the Freedom of Information request made to Andrews Snowden (see point 5), Andrew Snowden was asked whose idea it was to replace the hats. Andrew Snowden lied saying he did not hthis information, yet, Lancashire police have now confirmed that the decision was made by Andrew Snowden and the Lancashire Chief Constable, so the response of the Crime Commissioner was untrue
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