A RETIRED senior police officer and whistleblower has called for the resignation of Police Scotland’s Chief Constable Sir Stephen House.
Angela Wilson, former Assistant Chief Constable of Tayside Police, wants Sir Stephen to resign “for the good of the service”.
Ms Wilson said that she retired three years early as a result of Sir Stephen’s “regime”, which has been widely criticised for excessive use of stop and search powers and the uncontrolled use of armed officers.
Ms Wilson claimed Sir Stephen has has an excessively forceful management style.
She said: “He has a saying that everybody knows, ‘You’re either on his bus or you’re under it’.
“What’s happened is anybody who’s not been 100% on that bus has found themselves marginalised and in many cases they’ve been encouraged to leave the force.”
“The sign of a good leader is somebody who listens to other people. Had the current leadership done that, they would not have got into the current difficulties with stop and search and overtly arming police officers, to name but two issues.”
She went on to say: “It does appear to me he’s a micromanager. It’s a style of leadership I think is outdated.”
“I’m going to be honest and say for the good of the service I hope he moves on soon.”
A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “Matters relating to Police Scotland strategy and policing on specific issues are discussed fully and openly at various management meetings involving officers from throughout the country and across the various specialist areas of policing.
“Officers are neither ‘marginalised’ nor ‘encouraged to leave’.”
Ms Wilson hit out at Police Scotland earlier this week, making claims that they did not adequately investigate the theft of a document containing complaints against her colleagues from her locked office in April 2013.
Ms Wilson, 52, said that the thief of the file, which contained public complaints and allegations of misconduct towards Tayside Chief Constable Justine Curran and her Deputy Gordon Scobbie, “was not somebody external.”
An independent investigation failed to identify the culprit or recover the document.
Ms Wilson has now raised her complaint with police watchdog the Scottish Police Authority (SPA).
