The sum would have paid for an extra 1,400 full-time police officers, or funded the £30 million cost of the disputed police pay rise in England and Wales.

Research by journalist Heather Brooke and published in The Times newspaper showed the Metropolitan Police spent the most - just over £6 million last year.

Per 100,000 head of population, the Police Service of Northern Ireland was the biggest spender, at £99,501, compared with just £12,566 in Derbyshire.

The annual spend in the UK would cover the full 2.5% pay rise denied to officers in England and Wales by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, which has led to the threat of strike and recriminations between police leaders and ministers.

Overall spending on press and PR has increased by more than 13% since 2005.

Some rural forces reported much larger increases, with Cumbria constabulary more than doubling PR expenditure since 2005 and Dyfed-Powys increasing it by more than 77% over the period.

Ms Brooke said: "The police are paid to enforce crime not manage the public's perception of crime. If police are serious about keeping residents informed they should put more money into freedom of information which deals with answering questions people actually want to know."

The research was carried out using the Freedom of Information Act, and targeted all 52 police forces in the UK.

Four forces - Cleveland Constabulary, North Wales, South Wales and Strathclyde - either did not respond or provided data too approximate to use. North Yorkshire Police refused to answer the FOI request.