Is this the worst Copper in Britain
Discussion
More madness from our 'favourite' plod 
Brunstrom on speeding;
"It is against the law and there is no excuse for drifting over the limit any more than there is for drifting a knife into someone."
Full article at;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3127351.stm
Police chief attacks critics
Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom: tabloid media target
Police chief Richard Brunstrom has hit back at "unpleasant" attacks on him over his alleged obsession with catching speeding drivers.
In a robust interview on the BBC's Wales Today programme, he also repeated his call to make prescrption heroin available to addicts.
The North Wales chief constable said: "If we can give heroin away, which is perfectly possible (as) it can be done legally in this country now to people who need it, it would be cheaper and we would significantly reduce the crime rate."
Mr Brunstrom has previously called for the decriminalisation of drugs, including heroin and cocaine, on the grounds that addicts turn to crime to pay for illegal drugs to feed their habit.
At a meeting of the Police Federation in May 2002, he told the 700 delegates of the 128,000-strong organisation, that all drugs, including heroin and cocaine, should be decriminalised.
Only 30 officers at the Bournemouth conference backed him, but Mr Brunstrom has continued to press for a Royal commission on the legalisation of drugs.
In his interview on Tuesday on BBC Wales, he referred to the drugs problem and official policy on drugs as having: "A grave danger of destroying British society as we know it."
Drugs "may destroy" British society, said police chief
He also hit out at attacks on him for his force's police on detecting and catching speeding drivers.
He said there was: "A quite unpleasant thread running through some of the national media and some of the interest groups pursuing an obsessional and irrational scheme to discredit the government's National Safety Camera project."
He added: "They're not going to succeed."
Mr Brunstrom has recently faced tabloid newspaper attacks pillorying him as possibly the worst policeman in Britain and asking readers to give their views.
Attacks on him were heightened recently when he described a pensioner who had been caught in a camera speed trap as being guilty of "anti-social behaviour" and comparing him with a 17-year-old yob."
Further criticism of his alleged "obsession" with speeding, to the detriment of fighting crime in other areas, came the day after at a meeting of the North Wales Police Authority, in Colwyn Bay.
Mr Brunstrom revealed new figures which showed the worse burglary detection rates yet with only 6% of burglaries solved in April.
He told the authority the figures were no more than a statistical "blip."
In his BBC Wales Today interview, Mr Brunstron made no apologies for his hard line on speeding.
He said: "It is against the law and there is no excuse for drifting over the limit any more than there is for drifting a knife into someone."
Brunstrom on speeding;
"It is against the law and there is no excuse for drifting over the limit any more than there is for drifting a knife into someone."
Full article at;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3127351.stm
Police chief attacks critics
Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom: tabloid media target
Police chief Richard Brunstrom has hit back at "unpleasant" attacks on him over his alleged obsession with catching speeding drivers.
In a robust interview on the BBC's Wales Today programme, he also repeated his call to make prescrption heroin available to addicts.
The North Wales chief constable said: "If we can give heroin away, which is perfectly possible (as) it can be done legally in this country now to people who need it, it would be cheaper and we would significantly reduce the crime rate."
Mr Brunstrom has previously called for the decriminalisation of drugs, including heroin and cocaine, on the grounds that addicts turn to crime to pay for illegal drugs to feed their habit.
At a meeting of the Police Federation in May 2002, he told the 700 delegates of the 128,000-strong organisation, that all drugs, including heroin and cocaine, should be decriminalised.
Only 30 officers at the Bournemouth conference backed him, but Mr Brunstrom has continued to press for a Royal commission on the legalisation of drugs.
In his interview on Tuesday on BBC Wales, he referred to the drugs problem and official policy on drugs as having: "A grave danger of destroying British society as we know it."
Drugs "may destroy" British society, said police chief
He also hit out at attacks on him for his force's police on detecting and catching speeding drivers.
He said there was: "A quite unpleasant thread running through some of the national media and some of the interest groups pursuing an obsessional and irrational scheme to discredit the government's National Safety Camera project."
He added: "They're not going to succeed."
Mr Brunstrom has recently faced tabloid newspaper attacks pillorying him as possibly the worst policeman in Britain and asking readers to give their views.
Attacks on him were heightened recently when he described a pensioner who had been caught in a camera speed trap as being guilty of "anti-social behaviour" and comparing him with a 17-year-old yob."
Further criticism of his alleged "obsession" with speeding, to the detriment of fighting crime in other areas, came the day after at a meeting of the North Wales Police Authority, in Colwyn Bay.
Mr Brunstrom revealed new figures which showed the worse burglary detection rates yet with only 6% of burglaries solved in April.
He told the authority the figures were no more than a statistical "blip."
In his BBC Wales Today interview, Mr Brunstron made no apologies for his hard line on speeding.
He said: "It is against the law and there is no excuse for drifting over the limit any more than there is for drifting a knife into someone."
sidekick said:
At the risk of being completely off-thread I think the basic point of the discussion is that regardless of whether or not you think drugs should be decriminalised/legalised or are a good thing or a bad thing the basic point remains that Brunstrom is going about the job of directing the policing of N. Wales in a completely unbalanced and obsessive manner. :
Exactly, whatever your views on drugs and or speeding the man is clearly a tw@t! BTW if drugs are deemed 'OK' and acceptable for use by this man, then it follows he would not mind seeing more useage of them, in which case this would surely lead to more people under the influence whilst going about there normal business, say maybe when they are driving.
Would a wider spread use of drugs lead to more road accidents or worse still more speeding?
- still he could 'tax' them then by speeding fines. With the conflicting views on drugs shown on this thread I am glad to see there is one thing we all seem to agree on.... that Brunstrom is a f
g tt 
or 
or whatever floats your boat!griffless said:
Actually, the effects of extended misuse of coke may not be reversible
What about that girl from 'Eastenders' who lost her septum (skin seperating the nostrils)
also the guy from Status Quo who on TV a while back shoved a pencil in one nostril and out the other 
- Both apparantly from Cocaine use. I suppose both of these are reversible via plastic surgery, but hardly harmless IMHO.
OK a break from the Drugs for a while.
Following is a letter written in a North Wales newspaper today, written by a former assisitant CC;
"SEVENTY-THREE per cent of respondents to a poll on Richard
Brunstrom indicated that they did not believe he was doing a
good job.
Mr Brunstrom says he acknowledges the results of the poll and
will consider this in reviewing policies.
That just won't do. I can only think he has either missed the
point completely or he is attempting a Blairite 'spin' response.
Respondents voted on his personal performance, not on North
Wales Police policies. The question was: 'Do you think Richard
Brunstrom is doing a good job?'
I would suggest a more appropriate response might be: 'I shall
have to carefully consider my own position.'
His dismissive response to a serious situation entirely of his
own making is a 'cop out', just as it was a 'cop-out' to respond
to criticism of the most abysmal burglary detection rate on
record by saying that he has asked the Deputy Chief Constable to
discuss this aspect of performance with divisional commanders.
So it's all their fault is it?
He is the Chief Constable and is ultimately responsible and
accountable for the performance of North Wales Police. Current
performance dearly merits much more of his personal attention by
way of 'time-out' from his all too frequent and bizarre
attention-drawing pronouncements and law-changing and life-
changing issues.
He dismisses the lowest ever detection rate of six percent for
house burglary, which has also now gained him much media
attention, as old news and ridiculous. Well the last one is
certainly an appropriate descrption - for which he personally
would have been called seriously to account by a less
sycophantic and more effective police authority.
Additionally, he described the six per cent as 'a blip'. Some
blip, especially if it is all down to a spate of burglaries in
Wrexham How enormous would that spate have to be to drag down an
otherwise presumably respectable North Wales detection rate to
six per cent?
He also says he is concerned is that national and local
politicians 'do not know what they are talking about'. How
arrogant and patronising. Does he not realise that he cannot
fool people that easily in publicly rejecting the legitimate
concerns of elected representatives about police performance?
Before he came to North Wales in 2000 the Force's detection rate
for burglaries in dwellings stood at 46.4 per cent for 1998/99,
37.9 per cent for 1997/98 and 32.3 per cent for 1996/97. Now he
proudly states that he has set a target 25 per cent detection
rate for house burglaries. This is an unprecedented decline in
performance for which he cannot shirk responsibility. It is a
major failure, made even worse by the Chairman of the Police
Authority and the Assistant Chief Constable describing the man
ultimately responsible for the worst house burglary detection
rate in the UK as the best chief constable in Britain.
We are entitled to expect a Chief Constable to be professionally
efficient, to set and sustain high standards of conduct for his
force, to be open, honest and proportionate in his responses and
to be ever mindful of the fact that policing in the UK is firmly
based on the consent and support of policed communities.
He must also be prepared to be held person ally accountable for
the performance of the force and must, therefore, ensure that
avail able resources are used to best effect and conditions
right for all members to give of their best.
Come on, Mr Brunstrom, North Wales Police is getting
unprecedented sums of money out of North Wales taxpayers and has
never before had anything like so many officers and support
staff. Concentrate on leading the performance of this fine body
of people instead of indulging yourself on local and national
platforms. The huge amounts of money lavished in the past three
years on such things as new offices for you and your Chief
Officer colleagues, and private offices and laptops for police
authority members has done nothing to enhance policing services.
Neither does it help burglary victims to hear that North Wales
Police is now the most technologically advanced force in the UK
when they also know the force is very unlikely to be able to
offer them a half decent service when they need it. We all want
to be genuinely proud of the performance of the North Wales
Police and not to have to listen to unconvincing 'spin' about
pride and distorted statistical arguments. To make a statement
like 'The Force is successful on all fronts' is just about as
absurd a comment as anyone could make.
I am deeply saddened after serving 30 years with great pride in
the North Wales Police to hear many serving and retired officers
express deep shame at the decline in performance and also in
officers' personal appearance standards since Mr Brunstrom's
appointment as Chief Constable.
North Wales Police performance always stood among that of
leading forces in the country. Just look at it now; lower
burglary detection rates in rural North Wales than metropolitan
Manchester and London; serving officers complaining of the
creation of a planet of extreme political correctness; a force
obsessed with speeding motorists whilst failing miserably to
bring dishonest and threatening criminals to justice.
It's time for Mr Brunstrom to suppress his natural inclination
to court publicity and to get a grip on the really important
police performance and public perception issues before the lack
of public confidence in him seriously damages the fine
reputation the North Wales Police has enjoyed over so many
years.
Former Assistant Chief Constable.
Elfed Wynn Roberts
Glasinfryn
Bangor.
>> Edited by cazzo on Friday 8th August 23:47
Following is a letter written in a North Wales newspaper today, written by a former assisitant CC;
"SEVENTY-THREE per cent of respondents to a poll on Richard
Brunstrom indicated that they did not believe he was doing a
good job.
Mr Brunstrom says he acknowledges the results of the poll and
will consider this in reviewing policies.
That just won't do. I can only think he has either missed the
point completely or he is attempting a Blairite 'spin' response.
Respondents voted on his personal performance, not on North
Wales Police policies. The question was: 'Do you think Richard
Brunstrom is doing a good job?'
I would suggest a more appropriate response might be: 'I shall
have to carefully consider my own position.'
His dismissive response to a serious situation entirely of his
own making is a 'cop out', just as it was a 'cop-out' to respond
to criticism of the most abysmal burglary detection rate on
record by saying that he has asked the Deputy Chief Constable to
discuss this aspect of performance with divisional commanders.
So it's all their fault is it?
He is the Chief Constable and is ultimately responsible and
accountable for the performance of North Wales Police. Current
performance dearly merits much more of his personal attention by
way of 'time-out' from his all too frequent and bizarre
attention-drawing pronouncements and law-changing and life-
changing issues.
He dismisses the lowest ever detection rate of six percent for
house burglary, which has also now gained him much media
attention, as old news and ridiculous. Well the last one is
certainly an appropriate descrption - for which he personally
would have been called seriously to account by a less
sycophantic and more effective police authority.
Additionally, he described the six per cent as 'a blip'. Some
blip, especially if it is all down to a spate of burglaries in
Wrexham How enormous would that spate have to be to drag down an
otherwise presumably respectable North Wales detection rate to
six per cent?
He also says he is concerned is that national and local
politicians 'do not know what they are talking about'. How
arrogant and patronising. Does he not realise that he cannot
fool people that easily in publicly rejecting the legitimate
concerns of elected representatives about police performance?
Before he came to North Wales in 2000 the Force's detection rate
for burglaries in dwellings stood at 46.4 per cent for 1998/99,
37.9 per cent for 1997/98 and 32.3 per cent for 1996/97. Now he
proudly states that he has set a target 25 per cent detection
rate for house burglaries. This is an unprecedented decline in
performance for which he cannot shirk responsibility. It is a
major failure, made even worse by the Chairman of the Police
Authority and the Assistant Chief Constable describing the man
ultimately responsible for the worst house burglary detection
rate in the UK as the best chief constable in Britain.
We are entitled to expect a Chief Constable to be professionally
efficient, to set and sustain high standards of conduct for his
force, to be open, honest and proportionate in his responses and
to be ever mindful of the fact that policing in the UK is firmly
based on the consent and support of policed communities.
He must also be prepared to be held person ally accountable for
the performance of the force and must, therefore, ensure that
avail able resources are used to best effect and conditions
right for all members to give of their best.
Come on, Mr Brunstrom, North Wales Police is getting
unprecedented sums of money out of North Wales taxpayers and has
never before had anything like so many officers and support
staff. Concentrate on leading the performance of this fine body
of people instead of indulging yourself on local and national
platforms. The huge amounts of money lavished in the past three
years on such things as new offices for you and your Chief
Officer colleagues, and private offices and laptops for police
authority members has done nothing to enhance policing services.
Neither does it help burglary victims to hear that North Wales
Police is now the most technologically advanced force in the UK
when they also know the force is very unlikely to be able to
offer them a half decent service when they need it. We all want
to be genuinely proud of the performance of the North Wales
Police and not to have to listen to unconvincing 'spin' about
pride and distorted statistical arguments. To make a statement
like 'The Force is successful on all fronts' is just about as
absurd a comment as anyone could make.
I am deeply saddened after serving 30 years with great pride in
the North Wales Police to hear many serving and retired officers
express deep shame at the decline in performance and also in
officers' personal appearance standards since Mr Brunstrom's
appointment as Chief Constable.
North Wales Police performance always stood among that of
leading forces in the country. Just look at it now; lower
burglary detection rates in rural North Wales than metropolitan
Manchester and London; serving officers complaining of the
creation of a planet of extreme political correctness; a force
obsessed with speeding motorists whilst failing miserably to
bring dishonest and threatening criminals to justice.
It's time for Mr Brunstrom to suppress his natural inclination
to court publicity and to get a grip on the really important
police performance and public perception issues before the lack
of public confidence in him seriously damages the fine
reputation the North Wales Police has enjoyed over so many
years.
Former Assistant Chief Constable.
Elfed Wynn Roberts
Glasinfryn
Bangor.
>> Edited by cazzo on Friday 8th August 23:47
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