Police / Chief constable’s schedule too tight to speak to Shetland News
A brief explanation why we were unable to report on the chief constable’s visit this week
THE CHAIR of the islands’ community safety and resilience board has expressed his disappointment that one of the main local news providers was excluded from being able to interview Police Scotland’s new chief constable when she visited Shetland earlier this week.
Councillor Allison (Flea) Duncan said he would always “fight and do his utmost for fairness”.
Shetland News did not receive an invitation to speak to Jo Farrell and chief superintendent Rob Shepherd on Tuesday afternoon whereas the local BBC station and the Shetland Times newspaper did.
Police Scotland’s corporate communications team sought to allay concern of unjust treatment when asked why Shetland News had not been notified quoting a “tight schedule”.
Duncan said he will raise the issue with Shetland’s acting police chief inspector Scott Robertson at the next meeting of the safety resilience board on 28 August.
“I am disappointed that you (Shetland News) weren’t called or invited to a news media conference by chief superintendent Rob Shepherd and our chief constable Jo Farrell,” Duncan said.
“They (Police Scotland) should have been fair across the board with the Shetland Times, yourself, Radio Shetland and any other news organisation interested in this.”
Shetland News editor Hans J Marter said he was astonished by the decision to exclude one of Shetland’s main news providers and appalled by the unwillingness of the police’s corporate communication people to own up that a mistake had been made.
“It doesn’t happen very often that there is an opportunity to interview the officer in charge of the country’s police force, and to have been excluded from that is just galling,” he said.
“I had hoped the media people would have been straight back to me to apologise when I queried this late on Tuesday, but instead I got the usual excuses about ‘tight schedule’ and ‘a lot condensed into her itinerary’.”
He added: “While this might sound like sour grapes to some, it is in fact a matter of principle.
“When government ministers visit the isles, local media are regularly afforded no more than five minutes to discuss the issues at stake and ask questions, if they are given the opportunity at all.
“At a time when public agencies including the police and governments are more interested in polishing up their own social media profile, it matters all the more that those in public service are scrutinised by independent media.”
Meanwhile, Duncan said chief constable Farrell gave a strong commitment to frontline policing during a 90 minute meeting he and a number of resilience board members had with her on Tuesday.
This included, he said, efforts to identify “mundane” police jobs that could be done by other agencies to free up officers’ time.
She also confirmed that Chris Sewell has been appointed to lead the local police force after his predecessor Stuart Clemenson moved on to a different role within Police Scotland.
Chief inspector Sewell and his wife are due to move to the isles in October, Duncan confirmed.
The councillor added that the chief constable also gave a commitment to speak to Scottish ministers in an attempt to free up more proceeds of crime cash to fund the Dogs Against Drugs charity, as well as assuring board members that police officer numbers in Shetland would not be reduced.
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