Scotland Yard hopes to make millions by expanding its range of branded goods for sale, including baseball caps, mugs and beach towels.
The Metropolitan Police has hired the branding firm behind Leon and Malibu to come up with the range, which will take inspiration from the wildly popular New York Police Department (NYPD) clothing line worn by stars including Renée Zellweger.
It comes in the wake of successful TV series including Bodyguard and Line of Duty, which one PR guru said had increase the ‘sexiness’ of the Met’s brand.
The Metropolitan Police has hired the branding firm behind Leon and Malibu to come up with the range. Pictured are mock-ups of what the range could look like. They do not show actual items going on sale
The force hopes to use the money from sales of clothes and stationary to increase the number of frontline officers, according to The Evening Standard.
Currently, its marketing efforts have been limited to a model forensic kit, toys, and brand cufflinks.
PR expert Mark Borkowski, who has worked with stars from Michael Jackson to Sir Cliff Richard, predicted the new range could make millions in foreign experts.
‘It’s that image you have for Beefeaters, Bobbies, telephone boxes and the Routemaster buses. It’s the Downton Abbey effect, the projection of the Olympics,’ he said.
‘I don’t think you’ll see floods of Londoners buying their cuddly Met plod toy with their uniforms.’
The Met has licensed its logo, the New Scotland Yard sign, its regularly used font and colouring and imagery of police on patrol. Pictured: A mock-up of what the range could look like
The contract with Point.1888 was tendered by Transport for London (TfL), which has expertise in the area. Pictured: A mocked-up mug
The Met has licensed its logo, the New Scotland Yard sign, its regularly used font and colouring and imagery of police on patrol.
The contract with Point.1888 was tendered by Transport for London (TfL), which has expertise in the area, and will last until May 2021. The force said none of the items would allow buyers to look like actual officers.
Police bosses will hope the new range will bring much needed revenue to the force, which lost 1,850 officers from March 2010 to March 2017.
There have been more than 100 killings in the capital this year, many of them stabbings.
Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick blamed the figure on police cuts and a surge in cocaine sales while addressing MPs in June.
Currently the Met only sells a few items of merchandise, such as this teddy bear, which is available to buy through the TfL shop