Police chief’s attendance at conferences ‘fully justified’

Asked for costs of overseas trips, Cleveland Police Authority said it believed £15,916.80 had been spent in total to send the Chief Constable, his staff officer, the police authority chairman and the authority’s deputy chief executive to Denver in October 2009 for an International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) conference.

Cleveland’s chief, Sean Price, and his then staff officer, Heather Eastwood, are now living together in North Yorkshire. Mr Price declined to comment on their relationship but has previously stressed they never stayed together overnight on trips.

Ms Eastwood, who is now a detective chief inspector with Cleveland Police, also declined to comment on the relationship but stated all trips she undertook were for valid policing reasons.

On the eve of the Denver conference, the police authority put out a statement which said Mr Price and Coun McLuckie would be speaking at the four-day event – Mr Price on the training partnership between the force and Teesside University and the chairman on the tripartite system of policing in the UK.

Six months earlier, the same four people went to another IACP conference in Tallinn, Estonia. The police authority said it believed the total costs for sending the group to the three-day event were £7,315.14.

The force put out a press release in April 2009 recording Mr Price’s attendance at the IACP European Executive Conference and a presentation he gave about the training links with Teesside University.

There was no reference to Coun McLuckie speaking and the police authority did not publicise the then chairman’s attendance.

It is unclear why the authority’s Julie Leng attended either conference.

She was secretariat manager at the time of the Tallinn trip and was promoted to deputy chief executive a month before the Denver trip.

Cleveland Police Authority has declined to comment on Ms Leng’s attendance. She left her job in December.

Ms Leng declined to comment.

In September 2007, Mr Price and Coun McLuckie went to Denver to attend a conference of the International Association of Women Police to support two female detectives who were receiving awards. The women’s partners also attended but at their own cost.

The police authority said the total costs to the public purse was £7,312.32, plus further unidentified expenses of US$308.

No cost breakdowns for flights, accommodation and expenses have been provided for any of the overseas trips.

Coun McLuckie, who resigned from the police authority last May, was asked why he went on the trips, whether the scale of spending was reasonable and whether he had asked Ms Leng to attend.

He declined to comment.

The Chief Constable also received police funding to pay for accommodation when taking part in a charity bike ride from London to Paris in 2009 to raise money for Christian Aid.

The police authority said three nights’ hotel accommodation was paid for at a cost of £306.18, restaurant bills of £91.65 and a registration fee of £198 for the event.

Solicitors for Mr Price said his attendance at international policing conferences was fully justified and his element of spending had been openly recorded and audited.

They said: “The cost of the Chief Constable attending these conferences was appropriate and in line with other chief officers attending foreign conferences.”

The solicitors said officers from other UK forces have attended IACP conferences and at the time Mr Price attended he was responsible for national portfolios for the police Airwave communications network, IT and counter terrorism research. It was important for him to attend conferences to keep abreast of developments in policing nationally and internationally.

Mr Price’s representatives added: “It is not unusual for staff officers to travel abroad on conferences or other duties with their chief officer.

“The Chief Constable has travelled abroad with three different staff officers. In the case of Denver 2009 both the Chief Constable and his staff officer had been invited to speak.”