AMAZING DISCLOSURES

Hokitika Guardian, 21 July 1930, Page 8

AMAZING DISCLOSURES

BRISTOL POLICE SCANDAL. CHIEF CONSTABLE RESIGNS. HOW A GARAGE WAS BUILT. Extraordinary disclosures are made in a report issued by a committee appointed recently by the Bristol City Council to investigate allegations made jy the Labour members at a meeting of the council, following which M l r J. H. Watson recently resigned his post A'ion as chief constable. It was stated, among other things, that Mr Watson used a police car for ,a family tour in. Scotland; a lire brigade lorry took the luggage of Mr Watson and his friends to Cornwall when they spent a holiday there; a constable worked for two years as a gardener at Mr Watson's house without doing any police duties. The report concludes: “The committee are of opinion that Mr Watson was' not justified in utilising the services, of policemen or firemen or police veil-; icles for private purposes,* and they strongly deprecate his conduct in this res; Get. -They recommend that Mr Watson should be required to compensate or reinibuse the . corporation in respect of the services which he wrongly employed for private purposes, and they estimate the value of the services at £1516.” MOTOR CARS FOR PRIVATE TRIPS. The committee, found that nine firemen were employed 3347 hours ° ri work at the chief constable’s house building a garage, etc.; that a man was. sworn in as a constable without examination in , police duties to become a gardener at- the chief constable’s house and for over two years did no police duties, though receiving his usual -pay and allowances. There had also been engaged at the chief constable’s bouse, it wag allegtod, Fireman Johnson four months, and Fireman Pink nearly three years, au-cl also a pensioner named Maunder, all at the expense or the police .authority. Maunder, an ex-police sergeant, not only drew his pension, ; hut his. pay as a special constable in qd dition, while Johnston’s wife acted as cook in Mr Watson’s house .without pay. Evidence showed that official cars were used ft>'- privaith purposes on numerous occasions, a policeman acting as chaffeur, while a private car was sometimes similarly driven, petrol being supplied and repairs carried out at the police station. Evidence had been furnished, added the report, that one official cax in August, ,1921, took Mr Watson . and the members of bis family for a tour of Scotland, and during , that period the records showed that the chaffeur drew an allowance, in addition to his pay. ' In the following year the car conveyed Mr Watson and his family and personal friends to Tintagel on holiday. Mi Watson’s luggage and that of his friends was taken to Tintagel in a fire-brigade,, lorry,, and fetched from Tintagel in tbe same lorry, the council’s petrol and oil being used.CLAIM TO PRIVILEGES Tbe record showed that .the. wages, included extra duty allowance, paid to the chaffeur .. in connection . with the Scotland and Tintagel tour amounted to £55 19s 3d. The evidence also showed that in the latter pprt of 1929 the same car was sent- from Bristol to Eastbourne to fetch Mr Watson's mother to Bristol, and a fortnight Inter the same car took her back to Eastbourne. ’ Ml Watson’s answer to the allegations was that he considered the employment of police.,and firemen and the occasional .use of. the vehicles .as n privilege attaching to his position,, and that .his experience showed that the executive heads of the police forces enjoyed -by unwritten law certain customs and privileges, though it would he unfair fior him t-o gj' ‘‘ information concerning the privileges, enjoyed by other police chiefs. At the, meeting of the City Council when the rteport was considered, it was decided to demand payment from Mr Watson of £1516. A Labour amendment that Mr Watson he prosecuted was rejected by a large majority.