Potentially damaging allegations levelled against Tayside Police Chief Constable Justine Curran have been dismissed as ”without foundation” by the area’s joint police board.
Tayside’s top officer found herself at the centre of controversy earlier this month when The Courier revealed that a string of accusations had been made against her in a letter sent anonymously by a group calling themselves ”the loyal staff of Tayside Police”.
The Courier decided not to publish the accusations but a summary of them was passed to Tayside Police and in an unprecedented move the force decided to refer the complaints directly to the joint board.
On Monday, 12 days after The Courier made Tayside Police aware of the allegations, the matter came up at a behind-closed-doors meeting in Forfar.
The board, comprising councillors from Angus, Dundee and Perth, said there would be no further action taken and gave a unanimous vote of confidence to Ms Curran.
Immediately after the meeting, board convener and Dundee councillor Jimmy Black said Ms Curran had the board’s 100% backing.
”The reports have been completed and the board accepted that unanimously and we have absolute confidence in the chief constable and the deputy chief constable,” he said.
”There will be no further investigations into these allegations by the Tayside Police Joint Board. The police force protects us we now have to protect our employees.”
Mr Black added: ”We discussed the allegations made anonymously and we discussed the investigation that was carried out and made a recommendation to the board.
”Among the allegations there was one which wasn’t about the chief constable, alleging that a senior officer had tampered with evidence. This was a complaint that had been investigated previously and was found to be without foundation.
”In the letters there were allegations which gave us a couple of questions which we needed to ask to be absolutely sure.”
Continued…
”The clerk to the board investigated an officer who was named in the allegations and it was found to be without foundation. There was no new evidence brought forward that would oblige us to reopen the investigation.”
The claims came after Ms Curran had previously been subject to a complaint about texts she had allegedly sent to her personal assistant regarding the size of a colleague’s manhood.
The timing of the most recent allegations also provoked controversy as the chief constable had been tipped as a contender for the top job in Scotland’s new single force.
Mr Black said that the anonymity of the letter cast doubt over the credibility of the allegations but the board felt it was crucial to get to the bottom of what was claimed.
He continued: ”The whole question of anonymous allegations is whether or not to take these seriously but we felt we had a duty to investigate.
”Whoever made these allegations never provided us with their own names and they did not provide us with the names of the people who they said were involved in witnessing what they alleged was improper activity.
”There’s no evidence and no reason to investigate any further.”
He added: ”The police force protects us and they’re there to protect the community. We as a board, having listened to the allegations and investigated them with an open mind, have to protect our employees.
”We support the chief constable and draw this to a close. All of these allegations have masked some of the other reports on the agenda today which demonstrated improving performance across all fronts. We should bear in mind that much of that is down to the leadership of the chief constable.
”In rejecting the claims, we found it extremely disappointing that people chose to send anonymous letters to the media, rather than going through well-established and transparent grievance procedures, of which Tayside Police is an excellent practitioner.
”Such actions only serve to diminish the reputation of a high achieving police force, its officers and staff. If those people who made these allegations truly had the best interests of Tayside Police at heart, they would have come forward in the correct manner.
”If any police officer or staff member has concerns, I would urge them to follow the procedures available to them. Such procedures ensure that all complaints are taken seriously, even those given in confidence, and are open to external scrutiny.”