Paddy Tipping comments on Nottinghamshire Chief Constable

Following the storm over an interview given to the Sunday Telegraph by the Chief Constable, Stephen Green, Paddy Tipping comments in Hucknall Today:

"I think the Chief Constable has got to show leadership and reassure people he can tackle serious organised crime and murders.
"He has given the impression he is struggling and can't cope and he has got to persuade people in Nottinghamshire that the police in Nottinghamshire are up to the job. I think they are."

"I don't deny there are problems but since Steve Green became the Chief Constable nearly five years ago, the number of police officers in the county has increased by 211. He has also had an extra 257 civilian support staff and 102 new community support officers. Also, the level of crime fell by ten per cent in Nottinghamshire last year."

So, a little implied criticism of Chief Constable, and some general reassurance. It is difficult, however, to reconcile this picture of falling crime and increasing resources with the alarming quotes from Stephen Green. Although Mr Green has expressed regrets that the interview was 'not his finest hour', he has not contested the quotes, so presumably he did actually say them.

The article also mentions that Paddy and other Nottinghamshire MPs have been pressing for increased funding for the police. This implies that they have already acknowledged that there is a resourcing problem, in which case why shoot the messenger for publicly saying so, just before a general election? Whoops, I seem to have answered my own question.

An update on the blackmail allegations mentioned in the previous post is that it would appear Graham Allen MP got the wrong end of the stick. Rather than the Sunday Telegraph threatening to compromise investigations if it didn't get its interview, it was going to run an embarrassing piece reporting on an investigation which had already been compromised through incompetence.