THE Chief Constable of Cleveland police has today rightly apologised for the way the force unlawfully monitored telephones, including those of reporters working for The Northern Echo during my time as the paper’s editor.

Iain Spittal was not the Chief Constable of the force when it illegally used legislation designed to tackle terrorism and serious crime. He joined the force in 2013 and the scurrilous Big Brother tactics were deployed in 2012.

The aim wasn’t to catch terrorists or gangsters but to find out who was leaking potentially embarrassing internal information to journalists. Even The Northern Echo’s main switchboard was monitored. As I said at the time, it was sinister and shameful.

I appreciate Mr Spittal’s frank apology, delivered with Cleveland’s Police and Crime Commission Barry Coppinger by his side. That said, the Chief Constable could hardly do anything else, given that judges sitting in the High Court in December had made it clear that they would be finding Cleveland Police guilty of illegal conduct. The official roasting is yet to be delivered but it is on its way.

Mr Spittal has now announced an overhaul of the way the force handles complaints. The disgraced “Professional Standards Department” is to be dismantled. Indeed, a department with such unprofessional standards could hardly have had a more inappropriate title.

The bigger question is this: How many more chances is Cleveland Police going to be given?

Taxpayers have endured the marathon and hugely expensive corruption inquiries of Operation Lancet and Operation Sacristy, which outran The Mousetrap. They have seen the public shaming of former Chief Constable Sean Price and the jailing of police authority chairman Dave McLuckie for perverting the course of justice. New Chief Constables have had to sweep up the mess left by predecessors with controversy following controversy.
Now we discover that Cleveland Police – a force expected to hold others to account for breaking the law – couldn’t even be trusted for upholding the law itself. Indeed, it was out of control in the way it flagrantly abused the law.

Honourable rank and file officers have been embarrassed and let down time and time again by their bosses and there could hardly be a greater contrast with neighbouring Durham Police, which is rated as Britain’s best police force.

Today’s apology is welcome but Cleveland Police has run out of chances – and run out of trust.