IN his defence of the Chief Constable (Letters, July 23), Chief Supt Niven Rennie, writing in his position as recently-elected president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintedents, makes some unsubstantiated assertions.

The association started life when there were more than 40 police forces in Scotland. In large burghs the deputy chief constable had the rank of superintendent and in county forces they were chief super­intendents. Superintendents were neither members of the Scottish Police Federation nor the Association of Chief Police Officers and their association is not a statutory body.

The Police Federation was established by statute shortly after the First World War when riots occurred in Liverpool. The federation does not have the right to strike and all conditions of service are by negotiation.

Chief Supt Rennie reminds us that his association supported the creation of a national police service long before it became a political reality. He infers that there was inequality of service to the public throughout the country. How that conclusion was reached escapes me.

I spent nine years with the Inspectorate of Constabulary visiting forces throughout Scotland, from Orkney and Shetland and the Western Isles in the north to Coldstream in the Borders. There were 20 police forces in Scotland prior to the disastrous Lord Wheatley creation of eight regions in 1975. The imbalance between, for example, Strathclyde and Dumfries and Galloway appeared ridiculous and yet when the Lockerbie disaster took place, John Boyd, the then Chief Constable of Dumfries and Galloway, quickly called for and received mutual aid from Strath­clyde and Lothian and Borders. Such aid worked so well that Mr Boyd went on to become Chief Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland.

All that is of course history and change is always inevitable when cost-effectiveness takes precedence over efficiency. Giving such power to one individual was a monumental error. Mistakes can be remedied; Sir Stephen House must be made accountable not only to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, but to central and local government.

Having a small number of police officers carrying firearms in the course of regular duties was covertly introduced in three forces and the responsibility lies not only with Sir Stephen.

Without public consent policing does not work. As a beat constable in days long past I was always aware of the truth of the adage "the police are the public and the public are the police". Let us not forget it.

Donald Irving, QPM,

(Ex-chief superintendent),

7 Meadowpark Drive, Ayr.