10:10am Wednesday 8th July 2009
WHEN Sean Price became Chief Constable of Cleveland six years ago, he inherited a force in crisis.
It followed the debacle of the long and vastly expensive inquiry into the activities of Ray Mallon, the detective destined to become Middlesbrough’s elected mayor.
Mr Price was faced with a huge financial black hole and an organisation which had become a public relations disaster.
In those six years, he has changed the perception of Cleveland Police as a rudderless, accident-prone force.
It is no longer described routinely by the media as “crisis-hit Cleveland Police”.
He has led from the front in reducing crime by 17.3 per cent last year and has transformed public relations with a refreshingly open approach.
But does all of that make Sean Price worth the £74,000 top-up to his basic salary of £126,471, which he received last year?
Is a £50,000 “retainer” – to prevent him being head-hunted by other forces – plus a £24,000 “honorarium”
really warranted?
At least Sean Price is being rewarded for success, unlike senior figures in the banking industry, who prospered from abject failure.
But it will still be very hard for many of the people served by Cleveland Police to accept a whopping bonus for their police chief at a time when thousands are facing redundancy, pay cuts or pay freezes.
With a painful squeeze on public sector spending inevitable in the next few years, it will become even harder to justify splashing out additional taxpayers’ money to retain the services of Cleveland’s well-regarded – and already well-paid – chief constable.
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