Police Chief's Feelings Hurt

The Chief Constable of Northumbria Police, Sue Sim has said publicly that she was hurt by the jokes made about her appearance, as she led the hunt for Raoul Moat. This was the woman who had a lot to say, often about the fact she was in charge, whilst they couldn't find the man and who was responsible, ultimately for her officers deploying with unlicensed weapons.

But it is her feelings that she is most keen to talk about. In pointing out that the jibes were personal and nothing to do with her professional role she is entirely correct. Some of us are not that attractive. What you do have to be careful of though, is how you 'enhance' your image. Ms Sim seems to fall into the 'MMM' bracket - no Mum, no Mates, no Mirror. These are all sources of good advice.

What I particularly like though (and which points to her character flaws) is the way, having established that the remarks were hurtful, she says they referred to her as looking like Margaret Beckett. Now, that seems to me as though she is saying, 'good Lord that can't be true, Beckett is ugly'. Or the rejoinder that people wouldn't have thought to be nasty about her if she had been a short, fat man. Again, such people she seems to suggest actually would be deserving of the ridicule she received.

This woman is running a police force. A force that couldn't find Moat under their noses and walking the streets. A woman you cannot stop talking when nothing is happening and who suddenly becomes camera shy when the drama comes to  a head. Was it her fault, her force's fault Moat shot himself? I doubt it, though there is a suspicion that they, like all other forces seemed rather too keen to force events, rather than sitting it out.

The Drama in Northumbria

I can only comment on what I have seen from afar, so this is a piece including questions, based on images that were projected. Northumbria Police, in the form of Temporary Chief Constable (didn't it used to be 'acting'?) Sue Sim, her of the strange hair and chummy demeanour, seemed positively delighted to be in the limelight recently. Ms Sim was keen to appear before the media and did so in shirt order, making herself seem a more casual police officer, though it was very hot weather. Most of the time a senior officer alongside did the talking, but when she felt like it, she would butt in. If you listened carefully to their answers, but particularly hers, you came to realise she was mainly waffling. The words sounded reassuring, but were mainly meaningless. At one point she excused not answering a question for operational reasons, adding 'I wouldn't want to disclose that and you wouldn't want me to'. What? Why this need to assume what the reporters were thinking. She didn't come across as terribly on-the-ball. She walked the streets, still in shirt order, to reassure the public and to praise 'my officers' (did you get that? She is in charge). Unfortunately it seems, Raoul Moat was also walking the same streets without notice. Someone somewhere it seems was fixated with a preconceived notion that he was living rough in the woods. Then of course, after a long stand-off and with some confusion (because the police won't be clear) over how he died, Sim appeared at another news conference and now was wearing a jacket (though it was still hot) and much more clipped and to the point. She walked out when her bit was done and ignored the continuing questions, adopting a stony face and seeming just rude. Her ability to conduct herself correctly and deal with people is zero.

In this latter press briefing her language was mealy-mouthed; she mentioned that 'Taser had been deployed'. This was quite a stretch, as she deliberately mentioned the product, Taser, instead of accurately saying that two were fired. She instead claimed they were 'deployed', an action that had occurred when the first officer so equipped began the search for Moat.

I don't know if anything untoward will emerge from this police action, but the poor quality of control from senior officers appears, once again to be a prime factor. Often it is said, and was during the seven day manhunt that firearms officers cannot be ordered to shoot. Well, I bet that was not the case with the Taser incident; I bet they were ordered as part of a plan and that, for once puts a senior officer at risk of being held accountable. Normally of course, they blame those below them and seek promotion as justification.