The news reports are awash today following yesterday's Disciplinary Tribunal dismissal of a Humberside Police Detective Chief Inspector for comments he made about a colleague to whom he referred as a 'choc-ice'. The officer was dismissed without notice.
Following the officer's dismissal, Detective Superintendent Mathew Baldwin of Humberside Police 'Professional Standards Department' - whatever that is - told the world at large that 'there is no place for this kind of disrespectful language in modern policing and we will not tolerate it from any member of staff'. Quite, Superintendent Baldwin, quite. Superintendent Baldwin is a man who should go far in today's modern police force but we wonder, however, if the good Superintendent has ever met an angry man in the course of his career?
There is, of course, a duty on all senior officers to react and behave with moderation in their dealings with the Press and stock phrases such as this serve no useful purpose whatsoever. Any official comment from Humberside Police about this case should have come, without question, from the Chief Constable or his Deputy only, not from someone of the middle rank of Superintendent.
Frankly, we had never before heard the term 'choc-ice' which goes to show how divorced from modern life we are up here. We do, however, keep our feet firmly on the ground and in our view the punishment grossly outweighs the crime. Despite reading and re-reading the reports, we are none the wiser as to the import of the term 'choc-ice' so that, for us, it remains very much a mystery.
Whatever the term means, we hope this officer's dismissal is rescinded, immediately. We hope, also, that this particular Tribunal should never sit again in judgement on anyone.
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