Hail to the Chief!

Posted by David Rutland on October 15, 2008 3:49 PM

HE'S a bit of an odd chap, our chief constable here in North Wales.

It could seem, to an outsider that Richard Brunstrom is a man incapable of making up his mind and remembering his own decisions and statements.

First, it was the debacle over whether or not he will retire next year.
Shark jokes aside, there was great rejoicing throughout the land, when this August, he said in an interview that he will be retiring by Christmas 2009 for a life of messing about in boats on the seven seas.

The jubilation of motorists was short-lived, however, as later that month he denied ever having mentioned retirement.
The comments had been made live on a BBC TV programme. Hard to deny, but he managed it.

In December 2007, Mr Brunstrom, who was made a druid in 2006, told the nation that he broke into his own headquarters to "test security."
Scaling the outside of the building using scaffolding placed there for repairs, Mr Brunstrom entered through an open window.
It transpired later, that the chief merely had a faulty key fob for the doors.

Only last week it was reported that Mr Brunstrom, himself an Englishman, wanted to remove the were "Police" from all the police cars in his bailiwick, leaving only the Welsh word, "Heddlu."

Regardless of whether or not this was a good idea, his press office people obviously didn't think it was and rushed out a press release saying that the ageing copper had raised "rhetorical questions" and that "There are no proposals for related changes to our current Welsh language policy or indeed the vehicle livery. If any such changes were to be made, full consultation would take place prior to this."

In other words, he didn't mean it.

Many, many times, when we at the Visitor have contacted the police press office to get updates on mundane things such as crimes, there's no-one there to take our call. When there is, they often take several days to give us an answer.

I can't help but wonder, if the press officers of North Wales Police spend most of their working hours checking up on their boss and issuing implausible excuses for incomprehensible actions.

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