POLICE Scotland chief constable Stephen House is facing an investigation by the single force's watchdog after a formal complaint was made about him by a former senior female colleague.
Angela Wilson, who recently retired from the force, reported House to the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) but has declined to give details of her complaint.
Speaking to the Sunday Herald, she also said the culture for women in Police Scotland had "moved backwards", called for Audit Scotland to investigate internal force statistics, and said the majority of rank and file officers had no faith in House.
The chief constable's term has been marred by a spate of rows over budget cuts, armed policing and the industrial use of stop and search.
After opposition political leaders failed to back him, House announced that he was unlikely to seek a second term next year.
Wilson, who was a chief superintendent at Police Scotland, made a series of blistering comments criticising House's leadership style.
It can now be revealed that Wilson, a policing veteran with decades of service, complained to the SPA about House when she was in the force.
"I believe it [the complaint] is at the point where it's about to be put before a committee, who then decide whether or not to put the complaint before the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC)," she said.
She declined to elaborate on the allegation, but said: "There are a number of complaints about failure to follow policy."
A spokeswoman for the SPA refused to comment on the case, but said the body has a "statutory obligation to investigate complaints against senior officers".
Wilson's complaint is understood to be separate from another referral she made regarding an investigation relating to the old Tayside force.
In an interview with the Sunday Herald, she paid tribute to the frontline staff in Police Scotland but stepped up her criticisms of House.
As the founder and chair of the Women's Development Forum, which promotes gender equality in the police, she said the force's culture was not helpful towards females.
"Mr House says he is openly supportive of equality, but there are a lot of things in place that don't support that.
"I have a concern that the role of women in policing over the next few years under the current culture will diminish," Wilson said.
Asked why she had retired, she said: "I couldn't stand the culture anymore."
On House, she accused him of being a micro-manager who finds it hard to delegate decision-making: "It was reported to me that when a decision was being made about whether to have polo shirts - for frontline counter staff - whether they were going to be black or blue, nobody could make that decision apparently without referring it to him.
"That's when I realised that we had a real problem."
She believes part of the problem is House does not listen to dissenting voices: "There is a culture of 'don't take him bad news'. It's okay to agree, but don't disagree."
On House's recent appearances in front of MSPs and the SPA, during which he gave inaccurate information on stop and search, she said: "I was very unimpressed.
"I don't think he showed humility... By the figures not being right, and then being ... corrected a second time, [it] makes people think that either you don't know what you are doing, or you are trying to hide something.
"Bearing in mind what has happened with stop and search statistics, I would hope that Audit Scotland and HMICS are now going to very closely scrutinise all other statistics," she said.
Asked if House wanted to comment, a spokesman for Police Scotland said: "This is a matter for the SPA."
Deputy Chief Constable Rose Fitzpatrick said: "There has been a steady and significant increase in the number of women joining the police service in Scotland.
"We are disappointed in the views which have been expressed."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article