A Scandal (moderator, check very carefully!)

[Pabmusic]

Perhaps it's me, but I'd heard absolutely nothing about the scandals surrounding Cleveland Police, of which this is the latest:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22452157

This is bad enough (£550,000 damages!?) but what about these (all in this report):

• The Chief Constable was sacked in October 2012 for gross misconduct after he was found to have lied about his role in a recruitment matter and to have instructed a member of staff to lie.
  
• The Deputy Chief Constable was sacked in March 2013 for gross misconduct.
  
• The Head of Finance is suspended pending an investigation into misuse of public funds.
  
• The Officer in charge of this disaster was allowed to retire on a full pension, because the Assistant Chief Constable who made the decision "decided that the conditions to justify suspension were not met". Both are members of the police sailing team.

I accept that that my experience is with prisons and not police, but if the Governor, Deputy Governor and Head of Finance at a large prison were to be sacked or suspended in separate incidents within six months, and the prison were then to be ordered to pay half a million for another matter, I'm pretty sure it would be very common knowledge.

[mercia]

the Daily Mail seemed to know something last October

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2213231/Sean-Price-Chief-constable-Cleveland-Police-faces-sack-guilty-gross-misconduct.html#ixzz2C8TrDGQs

so many 'scandals' about, it's just another on the list

[antongould]

the Daily Mail seemed to know something last October

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2213231/Sean-Price-Chief-constable-Cleveland-Police-faces-sack-guilty-gross-misconduct.html#ixzz2C8TrDGQs

so many 'scandals' about, it's just another on the list

....and it shames me to say Cleveland, the "land" of my birth, has been awash with them.....

[kernelbogey]

When I began to read the BBC News link I found myself surprised that I was not, as I had assumed, reading about Cleveland, Ohio (which is also currently featuring in the news).

[Bryn]

It was covered locally back in 2010:

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/2010/04/20/teesside-solicitor-james-watson-talks-about-his-brush-with-the-law-84229-26277805/

Not yet found relevant items from the national press around that time, but they may well have been.

[french frank]

There may have been a legal point which prevented too much discussion. Facts would have been okay (X has been sacked, Y suspended) but if there was any sort of court appearance pending they would have had to be careful (I can't quite see what it might have been, though: not sure that civil damages cases would have triggered such cautiousness).

Anyway, it does look as if the big picture has any wraps that it might have had, removed. Extraordinary catalogue.

[Serial_Apologist]

We were assured by Lionel Blair yesterday, weren't we, that nothing of this kind could ever happen again in a British police force. Or am I thinking of something else?

[amateur51]

We were assured by Lionel Blair yesterday, weren't we, that nothing of this kind could ever happen again in a British police force. Or am I thinking of something else?

Add to all this the extraordinary way in which Jimmy Savile was able to dupe and manipulate the Leeds police force, such that they didn't see what was going on, nor what was wrong about their officers attending Savile's regular kaffee klatsch; but if a young woman tweets offensively when she has just been appointed to an official Youth/Police liaison post, oh well she has to go pronto, doesn't she.

[Nick Armstrong]

Add to all this the extraordinary way in which Jimmy Savile was able to dupe and manipulate the Leeds police force, such that they didn't see what was going on, nor what was wrong about their officers attending Savile's regular kaffee klatsch; but if a young woman tweets offensively when she has just been appointed to an official Youth/Police liaison post, oh well she has to go pronto, doesn't she.

Finger right on it there, ammy. It's mindboggling

[Serial_Apologist]

It was Sir Ian Blair I meant... sorry, Lionel!

[teamsaint]

Apparently one of the items that saville possessed was a lighter inscribe "from your friends in the (West Yorkshire) vice squad." (source, an MP !)

the state of public life in this country is at a very low ebb indeed.

As a customer of mine said recently, " I thought it was only like this in ......." (add name of notoriously corrupt middle eastern country).

[teamsaint]

It was Sir Ian Blair I meant... sorry, Lionel!

tony, lionel, "Sir" Ian, Rupert the....

[amateur51]

It was Sir Ian Blair I meant... sorry, Lionel!