THE Scottish Police Authority has been in perpetual turmoil since its inception in 2012 and the latest controversies demonstrate it remains a temperamental and unpredictable watchdog.
Early disputes between founding chairman Vic Emery and first chief constable Sir Stephen House over who should control information technology and human resources now seem like a playground spat compared to the most recent revelations.
The pair resigned almost in tandem in 2015 following a series of controversies, including a fatal M9 crash in which police failed to attend the scene for three days, and the death in custody of Sheku Bayoh.
Sir Stephen was seen by many as a divisive centralising figure at the time, but the allegations surrounding his successor Phil Gormley about bullying and gross misconduct make his predecessor seem like a stoic statesman.
Mr Emery’s resignation shortly after Sir Stephen was designed to draw a line under the past and allow his successor to forge a close relationship with the next chief constable.
“The relationship between the chief constable and the chair of the SPA is a key one,” said Mr Emery upon his departure.
Today, another chief constable and chief executive find their futures almost inextricably linked.
Mr Emery’s successor, Andrew Flanagan, was accused of running the SPA “like the Kremlin”, while Mr Gormley is under investigation by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) for allegedly shouting at an aide.
Mr Flanagan finally bowed to pressure and quit last month, while Mr Gormley, who is midway through his three-year contract, is not expected to stay beyond the end of his term.
Former SNP justice secretary Kenny MacAskill, who devised the single force, has warned of a potential “leadership gap”
with Mr Gormley’s most obvious replacement, his designated deputy Iain Livingstone announcing his retirement. All of this creates the impression of a police force and watchdog that are essentially ungovernable, but, to be fair, the the odds have been stacked against it from the start.
Centralisation has exposed policing to the glare of the national media. The old eight forces had the luxury of being scrutinised by disparate and largely under-resourced local newspapers and anonymous police boards.
The transparency the SPA was supposed to deliver has, at times, led to less transparency as its first reaction to uncomfortable headlines – many of them drawn verbatim from SPA reports – has been to deny, obfuscate, attack and ultimately hide behind closed-door meetings and classified reports. Centralisation was also essentially devised as a cost-cutting exercise rather than a model of good policing.
The Scottish Government has a limited budget and Police Scotland has, in the words of Mr Gormley at the SPA board yesterday, “a bottomless demand for policing service from the public”.
The SPA is stuck in the middle trying to manage demand from the police for more resources and ministers with ever-tightening purse strings.
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