Complainant says force has failed to act on repeated incidents of anti-social behaviour
Police chief is accused of writing ‘distorted rubbish’
Published:
Northern Constabulary chief constable Ian Latimer has been accused of writing “distorted rubbish alien to the truth” in a letter to a local MSP.
The allegation came to light in a report by Jim Martin, the Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland.
The unnamed man, who had been the victim of antisocial behaviour for several years, has reported around 2,000 incidents to the police over the years. He claimed Northern Constabulary failed to effectively deal with these incidents.
On one occasion the man reported that he had been assaulted outside his home. He asked his MSP to contact Northern Constabulary on his behalf but he was unhappy with the response the politician received from Mr Latimer. A complaint about the letter sent in 2006 was forwarded from the force to the Northern Joint Police Board for consideration.
Without seeing the letter, the board decided the complaint was “unfounded”.
In his report, Mr Martin said: “If the board was not aware of the content of the chief constable’s letter to the complainer’s local MSP, it is difficult to understand how the board reached its conclusion.”
Mr Martin has recommended that the board “seek to clarify the content of the letter and write to the complainer with its conclusion.”
Norman MacLeod, chairman of the joint police board, said: “We hadn’t had sight of the letter at that time, but we have had sight of it now. We are more than happy to produce a copy of that, we are satisfied that we can co-operate fully with the recommendations of the CPPS.
“I am confident that the letter will ensure that there is no issue whatsoever in relation to the content of the letter.”
A spokesman for Northern Constabulary said: “Now it has been brought to our attention, we have made the correspondence available to the Northern Joint Police Board.”
