Police face £2.2m bill to repair vehicles targeted by vandals

The cost of criminal damage to police vehicles reached £2.2million over the past three years, new research suggests.

Select Fleet Solutions, a division of Select Car Leasing, gathered the information via a series of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

Not all of the UK’s police forces record vandalism to vehicles separately from general fleet repair and running costs, but for those that do the figures suggest a current annual cost to repair vandalised police fleet vehicles is at least £743,466 – an increase of 27% compared with 2021-22’s figure of £585,232.

While repair bills will differ according to the size of the fleet and by how much fleets have grown, West Yorkshire Police has been hit particularly hard.

It runs a fleet of more than 900 vehicles - covering everything from safeguarding units to off-road motorcycles - and reported a cost of £716,981 for criminal damage to cars between 2021 and 2024.

Meanwhile West Mercia Police - which covers Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin - picked up a £433,000 vehicle vandalism bill. That figure includes £55,090 worth of vehicle criminal damage costs in 2024.

Criminal damage costs have also increased markedly for West Mercia - going from £116,344 in 2021-22 to £149,723 in 2023-24.  

Graham Conway, managing director at Select Fleet Solutions said: “It’s reasonable to expect police vehicles to suffer damage as a result of accidents and collisions.

“They are thrust into dangerous situations on a daily basis while keeping us all safe and it would be impossible for bumps and crashes not to occur.

“But what’s not acceptable are the enormous costs having to be shouldered by police forces as a result of vandalism and criminal damage to fleets. 

“We’re talking about windows being smashed, paintwork being ruined, wing mirrors being ripped off and tyres slashed.” 

He added: “For some forces the costs associated with criminal damage to its vehicles is on the rise. And the figures reported here are just the tip of the iceberg. The overall picture is likely much, much worse.

“Not all forces record ‘criminal damage’ or ‘vandalism’ to its fleet vehicles separately from more general accident or collision damage.

“Our FOI stats also don’t cover the summer 2024 riots that shook the UK, with police cars overturned and marked vans set on fire among all manner of events which will have criminal damage costs sky-rocketing.”

Cost of criminal damage/vandalism to police vehicles in last three years

Total across three years: Total = £2,157,441
2021/22 - £585,232
2022/23 - £790,833
2023/24 - £743,466

Breakdown by Police Force

West Yorkshire Police: Total = £716,981
2021/22 – £99,577
2022/23 – £338,901
2023/24 – £278,502

West Mercia Police: £433,000
2021 - £116,344
2022 - £111,842
2023 - £149,723
2024 (up to October '24) - £55,090

Police Scotland: £294,883
2021/22 - £97,809
2022/23 - £90,171
2023/24 - £106,853

Police Service of Northern Ireland: £244,160
2021/22 - £145,223
2022/23 - £37,221
2023/24 - £61,716

Kent Police: £128,319
2021 - £7,978
2022 - £88,553
2023 - £31,788

Staffordshire Police: £47,618
2021 - £16,639
2022 - £23,454
2023 - £7,525

Bedfordshire Police, Cambridgeshire & Hertfordshire Constabularies (Joint Response): £39,840
2021-22: £12,829
2022-23: £23,439
2023-24 £3,572

Essex Police: £32,657
2021 - £5,197
2022 - £11,844
2023 - £15,616

Derbyshire Constabulary: £32,112
2022 - £12,290
2023 - £7,573
2024 to date - £12,249

South Wales Police: £30,698
2021/22 - £7,961
2022/23 - £10,594
2023/24 - £12,143

North Wales Police: £28,647
2021 - £11,889
2022 - £4,136
2023 - £12,622

Devon and Cornwall Constabulary: £21,975
2021/22 - £7,325
2022/23 - £7,325
2023/24 - £7,325
(average ‘Annual cost’ per year listed)

Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies (Joint Response): £20,929
2021/22 - £2,918
2022/23 - £1,285
2023/24 - £16,726

Humberside Police: £19,529
2021/22 - £11,024
2022/23 - £5,100
2023/24 - £3,405

Dorset Police: £19,371
2021/22 - £6,457
2022/23 - £6,457
2023/24 - £6,457
(average ‘Annual cost’ per year listed)

Durham Constabulary: £17,908
2021/22 - £3,939
2022/23 - £13,969
2023/24 - Information not held

Surrey Police: £17,483
2021 - £6,750
2022 - £6,747
2023 - £3,986

Warwickshire Police: £15,030
2021/22 -  £7,921
2022/23 - £0 (some vehicles recorded against the ‘Criminal Damage’ category on the Fleet System in 2022/23, but there is no cost against them. Could be due to relatively minor damage).
2023/24 - £7,109

Cumbria Police: £8,949
2021/22 - £3,332
2022/23 - £2,005
2023/24 - £3,612

Lincolnshire Police: £4,584
2021/2022 - £1,830
2022/2023 - £217
2023/2024 - £2,537

Avon and Somerset Constabulary: £676 (since March 2022)

*Costs listed are before any insurance recoveries are made.