Top police officer defends chief constables in wake of series of 'unfair' scandals

'Not infallible': A top cop has defended his senior colleagues' mistakes in their personal lives
12 April 2012

The leader of the country's top police officers hit back at critics yesterday after a number of chief constables were engulfed in scandals.

Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said much of the flak levelled at senior officers had been unfair.

He spoke out after several top officers were embroiled in controversies over alleged errors of judgement in their personal lives.

Last week anti-terror chief Andy Hayman, a Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner, quit after being accused of "inappropriate contact" with a woman watchdog official and claims that he had spent too much money on his force credit card. He denied the claims.

The chief constable of Dyfed-Powys, Terry Grange, resigned last month amid allegations of financial irregularities, computer misuse and sending inappropriate emails to a woman who subsequently complained.

The married father-of-three turned his force into one of the best performing constabularies in the country, but stepped down after he lost the support of his police authority. He admitted that he had allowed his "private life to interfere with my professional role".

Anti-speeding campaigner Meredydd Hughes, the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire, also hit the headlines for the wrong reasons after receiving a driving ban for speeding at 90mph. He clung onto his job at South Yorkshire, but was forced to step down as ACPO's spokesman for roads policing.

The head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Sir Hugh Orde, has also been in the news over his personal life.

Widely-respected Sir Hugh, tipped as a potential future Scotland Yard chief, has been backed by his police authority and cleared of any improper conduct after complaints were made by a former officer about his expenses.

Mr Jones told the Daily Mail: "Police officers are not above the law. Nor are they infallible. Even the most senior police officers, like everyone else, may occasionally make mistakes in the personal lives.

"But there is a distinction between choices made in their personal lives and the judgments they may take in the operational field.

"We should remember that some of the chief officers who have been criticised in public recently have also made distinguished and invaluable contributions to policing, saving lives, protecting the vulnerable, tackling crime and disorder to the huge benefit of society."

He went on: "In the modern world chief police officers can no longer pass unquestioned thanks solely to the respect we have for their authority, and to that extent, criticism levelled now reflects in part the times we live in.

"Yet it is a cornerstone of policing that chief officers should be answerable to the local communities they serve and when mistakes are made, it's absolutely right that they should be held to account for them. That standard applies in any era, and especially so today."

Mr Jones, a former chief constable of Sussex, pointed out that in recent times police had dealt with "a succession of crises that would have overwhelmed lesser organisations".

"Terrorist attacks on London which could have resulted in death and destruction on a massive scale have been thwarted. Police forces across the country rallied to support their communities during the worst flooding seen this century. Serious crimes like people trafficking and gun and gang crime continue to be investigated, and perpetrators brought to justice.

"There are more than 80,000 people behind bars as I speak, while Jack Straw is announcing plans to build more prisons to house all the criminals caught and prosecuted successfully through the hard work of policemen and women up and down the country."

He pointed that the successes had been secured against "a background of tightening public resources for policing".

"So it's easy to characterise the leadership of the police service by singling out a few convenient examples, but let's not pretend that's not the whole story," said Mr Jones.

"There are over 300 police officers and police staff of chief officer rank, all of them now slighted by the blanket suggestion that there is something 'wrong with Britain's police chiefs'. Many of them regularly work 70 plus hours a week and in their own time serve their communities still further through involvement with charities and local groups.

"While it's important that the serious complaints are addressed and learnt from, taken against the literally millions of police and public interactions over a year, it shows that more often than not we get it right."

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