Dear Editor
As a former member of North Yorkshire Police Authority, who played a small part in the selection of Grahame Maxwell as Chief Constable, I feel compelled to comment on the recent Gross Misconduct verdict.
Whilst Mr Maxwell has clearly let himself down, in trying to give a family member an unfair advantage and, most especially, in his apparent attempts to discredit the investigation against him and so evade any sanction, I believe the system has also been found wanting.
Mr Maxwell, his former Deputy Adam Briggs and his immediate predecessor Della Cannings were all recruited and, supposedly, held to account by The North Yorkshire Police Authority. Each of these appointments has led to controversial and embarrassing press stories of excessive expenditure and/or rules broken and, as a former insider, I can state that there were plenty of other potential stories which never made the papers.
In my opinion these problems stem from a lack of effective local accountability. Chief Constables are theoretically accountable to their police authorities, made up of local councillors and independent members, which are supposed to represent the interests of local people and ensure value for the money they raise as part of our Council Tax. Unfortunately they are not fit for this purpose.
The Home Office rules for hiring chief and deputy chiefs undermine the recruitment role of police authorities, by preventing all but a select handful of approved police officers from being considered. In essence, the police authorities get to choose from a very small number of very similar candidates.
Once recruited, some Chief Constables seem to treat the Police Authority as a problem to be managed. To this end, they can exploit rules on operational independence, intended to prevent political interference in policing, to control the flow of some management information, in order to avoid the proper scrutiny which is the legitimate role of their Police Authority.
During my time on the North Yorkshire Police Authority, we certainly did manage to uncover some truly eye-watering examples of waste and mismanagement, but I was convinced that we were only scratching the surface.
The Government apparently plans to abolish police authorities and replace them with much stronger, directly elected, police commissioners. Surely, for North Yorkshire, this change cannot come soon enough.
Yours
Greg White
