After this column in the Sun today, following arrests of its journalists at the weekend, here is the full statement in response from the Met Police:
'The linked Operations Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta are extremely
difficult and complex with literally millions of pieces of documentation
needing to be scrutinised and examined.
Given the seriousness of the allegations currently under investigation
and the significant number of victims, the MPS does not believe that the
level of resources devoted to the three inquiries is in any way
disproportionate to the enormous task in hand.
There are 169 officers and staff currently deployed to the three linked
investigations. Of these, 91 officers and staff are deployed to
Operation Weeting; 61 to Operation Elveden; and 16 to Operation Tuleta
with a Detective Chief Superintendent overseeing the three
investigations. These resources are constantly reviewed and where they
relate to corrupt payments to police officers the IPCC have oversight.
The majority have come from Specialist Crime; Territorial Policing and
the Directorate of Professional Standards. At no stage has any major
investigation been compromised as a result of these deployments.
Saturday's Operation Elveden arrests were as a result of information
provided to officers by News Corporation's Management Standards
Committee.
We would like to make it clear that no more than ten MPS officers
attended each of the home addresses of the persons arrested as part of
Operation Elveden on Saturday, 11 February. It should be noted that
several officers are needed for the thorough and efficient search of an
address, including, where appropriate, specialist search teams.'
