British police 'fess up

Days of bullying and getting ‘bladdered’ on expenses are over, says the new chairman of Police Federation as he pledges to rebuild public trust

The new chairman of the Police Federation has pledged to end the scandals that have plagued the nation’s forces.

Inspector Steve White was elected just over a week ago as chairman of the organisation, which represents 125,000 rank-and-file policemen and women.

In his first interview since securing the post, Mr White told The Guardian that his priorities were unifying the federation, and ‘rebuild[ing] the level of trust the police has with the public’.

‘We have been in a fairly dire place for 18 months ... we were quite close to being irrelevant,’ he said.

The police’s reputation has been damaged in recent times by allegations of bullying, officials getting ‘bladdered’ on expenses and scandals such as Plebgate, when police claimed that then Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell swore at them when they refused to open the gates of Downing Street for him.

Insp White demanded that the government stop attacking police and the federation which was lambasted by Theresa May, the Home Secretary, at its conference the week before last.

Mrs May announced that she was scrapping all Police Federation funding because the organisation sits on 'vast reserves' of cash worth tens of millions of pounds. She also demanded that the organisation reformed itself 'from top to bottom'.

Insp White said that the federation was going to reform itself anyway and ‘didn't need the Home Secretary to come and give us a beating’.

Original report here

　

　

　

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