With Chief Constables standing down following the election of controversial new Police and Crime Commissioners, Wiltshire’s PCC Angus Macpherson, has announced he wants to “move quickly” to seek a new Chief Constable for the county.
His embargoed statement came three working days after Marlborough News Online requested basic information on any appointment since Mr Macpherson has only nine weeks to carry out the task and also agree a budget with a new chief officer.
And at the same time promote his ideas with public meetings in Wiltshire’s main towns but not meeting in Marlborough.
Patrick Geenty has been the temporary Chief Constable of Wiltshire since March when Brian Moore, a Queen’s Medal appointment, was seconded to the Border Agency, then facing serious criticism on its failure to control airport immigration.
The PCC office has appeared unprepared to answer questions over the appointment process, which, like the whole operation of the new police commissioners, has been declared by the Home Office to be open and transparent to the public.
We asked in particular on Friday whether any advertisements had been placed for the post, but it is now revealed that the first advertisement will appear tomorrow (Thursday).
Today (Wednesday) Mr Macpherson announced that he is beginning the process to recruit the next Chief Constable for Wiltshire Police, and in a statement said: “An advertisement for the role will be published in the Police Professional magazine on Thursday 29 November.”
“There will also be adverts from Wednesday 28 November on the Police Professional, Wiltshire Police and PCC websites.”
Mr Macpherson added: “I want to move quickly to secure a substantive appointment to the position of Chief Constable. There are a considerable number of vacancies nationally, and I want Wiltshire and Swindon to have the largest possible pool of candidates.”
“We have therefore advertised early, and will be one of the first to recruit.”
As part of the process, 59-year-old accountant and former councillor Mr Macpherson will chair a recruitment panel, which will comprise leaders of both Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council and an experienced member of the voluntary sector.
“It will be a rigorous process,” he told Marlborough News Online. “The important dates are closing date for applications — 19 December 2012 and 7 January 2013 when we will interview.”
But visitors to the Wiltshire Police website will be confused by Mr Macpherson’s statement that the Chief Constable post can be viewed there.
The website currently states:
“We are sorry to have to inform you that the advertisement of Police Staff vacancies will now be limited, and therefore many have been removed, due to budgetary constraints.
To ensure our force can maintain our public services it may still be necessary to recruit to a limited number of posts that are deemed critical by our senior management.
Vacant posts are reviewed by our Chief Officer team to determine if the posts will be released from the recruitment freeze and therefore shown above.
These posts will be recruited to but applicants must be aware that due to the proposed scale of changes by the Vision programme these, as all force posts are, may be subject to change.”
The statement adds:
“We will be reviewing the decision to recruit these business critical decision on a regular basis and we will reflect any update to this situation by the posting of a revised message on this page.”
Police Professional magazine is available only to subscribers and there is no information available about the appointment on the PCC website, which went live last Thursday.
A PCC spokeswoman told Marlborough News Online this morning: “The advert is now on the PCC website (via a link in the news section). It will also shortly be on the Force website.”
Mr Macpherson, from Wroughton, Swindon, was the first PCC to be elected in the country – on a 15.8 per cent vote.
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Do you want to be Wiltshire’s new chief constable? Despite all the pledges of openness and transparency the advertisement for a new Chief Constable for Wiltshire is difficult to discover on the PCC website. And when you do – at the bottom of a news article headed Chief Constable to be recruited – it says: WHILTSHIRE CONSTABULARY: There has never been a more challenging time to be a Chief Constable. The social, economic and political environment is changing rapidly, and the policing service is changing with it. If you have the drive and ambition to thrive in this environment, this position will give you a platform to make your mark. For an informal discussion, contact the Commissioner, Angus Macpherson, on 01380 734022 or the Chief Executive, Kieran Kilgallen, on 01380 734002. In small type it adds: Request an application pack from Christine Clifford on 01380 734022 or email Christine.clifford@wiltshire.pnn.police.uk And it points out that the closing date for applications is December 19, short-listing takes place on December 21 and interviews take place on January 7, 2013. Marlborough News Online has requested a copy of the application pack. |
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