I'll take criticism over chief constable's contract on the chin, says North Yorkshire police commissioner

Julia Mulligan announced yesterday that Dave Jones’s fixed term as North Yorkshire’s top officer will continue until June 2020, a three year extension on the contract he was given when he joined in 2013.

She has been criticised for making the decision just months before elections for police and crime commissioners are held in May, meaning a possible successor would have no control over who was appointed as chief constable.

Speaking at a scrutiny meeting in Northallerton today, Mrs Mulligan said the decision to extend the contract was to ensure continuity and “came down to what was best for the police service and the public of North Yorkshire.”

The police and crime commissioner said she “felt it was necessary to take steps to secure the tenure of the chief constable” but declined to reveal the reasons for this, saying they were confidential.

She said she wanted to give the force stability as two of its most senior officers, deputy chief constable Tim Madgwick and one of its assistant chief constables, are due to retire in the next 18 months.

Mr Jones joined North Yorkshire Police from Police Service Northern Ireland, where he served as Assistant Chief Constable. He was chosen for the job ahead of Mr Madgwick, who had been temporary chief constable prior to his arrival.

Before that, former chief constable Grahame Maxwell and his deputy Adam Briggs left the force in 2012 and 2011 respectively after being embroiled in a nepotism scandal where they were accused of helping relatives in police recruitment processes.

Mrs Mulligan said: “The continuity [Dave Jones] has provided, taking over after a period of serious difficulties with chief constables and their deputies, has been absolutely invaluable.

“The continuity for the force is my primary objective here, to make sure we have a leader in place who had demonstrated his ability amply, who can deliver the changes that need to be made over a long period of time and to provide the continuity of leadership that the force has been sadly lacking in previous years.

“I am fully aware of the timings of this and have wrestled with that, I didn’t want to do something that would seem improper given the timings. But it came down to what was best for the police service and the public of North Yorkshire.”

The decision has been criticised, with former North Yorkshire Police officer Mike Pannett, who is challenging Mrs Mulligan in May, claiming it was “morally wrong and unforgivable”.

Mr Pannett said today: “I’m actually quite shocked that Julia Mulligan has gone ahead with this and it really smacks of arrogance. She’s clearly aware that it’s a highly questionable course of action - but she clearly doesn’t care less.”

Professor Gary Craig, a member of the North Yorkshire police and crime panel where Mrs Mulligan was speaking, said he had a “few anxieties” about the extension of the contract.

He said: “It is your judgement that Dave Jones is a good chief constable, we may share it or may not. But you are committing a future PCC to that judgement.

“You may not be here, let’s say, hypothetically, in a few months time, and a future PCC will have to accept that a decision has been made, over which he or she has no influence whatsoever.

“Let’s just say hypothetically that people have been snooping around Newby Wiske offering Dave Jones baskets of fruit, I see no possibility that extending his contract would weaken or strengthen his resolve to stay, it would seem to have no impact.

“If the intention is to try to say to him, your job is secure for another two-and-a-half years, he could still walk out in June to another job.”

Mrs Mulligan said in response: “I am not prepared to go into details about his personal circumstances but in his statement he did talk about the importance of his family.

“He has a young family and they are settled here. His statement tells you a lot around his motivations and whether or not he wants to stay here.

“His desire, clearly expressed in that statement, is to stay in North Yorkshire because of his family circumstances. That contract extension means he has some certainty around that.

“I thought about it extremely carefully. I have to weigh up what is in the public interest and what is right and proper.

“The most important thing here is whether or not the force has the right leadership in place. You have also got to look at the team that sits underneath him. Quite a number of those people are due to retire in the next few years and so having that continuity at chief constable level.

“For example, the deputy chief constable is due to retire, the assistant chief constable is due to retire.

“There is a big a change in that team due in 18 months so I thought it was very important to have stability for the organisation.

“People will criticise me over decision but I will take it on the chin because I have weighed it up very carefully.”

In his statement yesterday, Mr Jones said: “The police force has faced testing times since I took up office, and there have been some tough decisions to make. We have already made a lot of improvements to the way we police the county, but we live in a complex world which continues to throw up new challenges, so there is always more to do.

“On a personal level, my family have fallen in love with North Yorkshire and the extension to my appointment cements our long-held ambition to see our children brought up in this wonderful county.”