He was the hot-shot English cop who rose to be a Scottish chief constable. And his career ended in tabloid frenzy of sleaze, seemingly endless political handwringing and broadsheet angst about police accountability.
It’s exactly 20 years since Ian Oliver was ousted as the chief of the old Grampian force.
He had been caught hugging a woman half his age in a car park after being slated for his service’s investigation of a high-profile child murder. Politicians scented blood. Dr Oliver - he had completed a PhD while on the job - had been a towering figure in Scottish policing since he was appointed Scotland’s youngest chief constable in 1979. In early 1998 the then Scottish secretary, Donald Dewar, called for him to “pack his bags and go”. His local governing body at his throat, Dr Oliver decided to follow the future first minister’s advice.
Scroll forward two decades and another chief constable is in trouble. Phil Gormley is no Ian Oliver. He has neither the Grampian chief’s academic pedigree nor his hands-on experience of policing north of the border.
Indeed, Mr Gormley’s wife claims he is an “outsider”, an officer with no Scottish accent who it is “very easy to attack”. This does not sound credible in a Scottish force half of whose chief officers are not Scottish.
Her dogwhistle - the not so thinly veiled suggestion of anti-English prejudice - has probably burned any last bridges Mr Gormley may have had with Scottish policing.
However, there is nothing unprecedented about an English chief constable in Scotland. And there is nothing unprecedented about such a senior officer - or any other - getting in to trouble.
What is different today from 20 years ago is the politics. Back in 1998 the Oliver affair was a big regional story about a big regional force. In 2018 the Gormley scandal is a national story about a national force. The stakes are higher and the rhetoric shriller.
Tory Ruth Davidson - who leads the opposition in a parliament that had still to be opened when Dr Oliver was squeezed out - even picked up one of the lines from Mr Gormley’s wife, that the chief had not been interviewed since he stepped aside for “special leave” in September.
Meanwhile Labour justice spokesman Daniel Johnson branded the situation a “farce” which was getting in the way of bigger issues.
One of those bigger issues, however, is the eternal tug-of-war over who controls what in policing. As in 1998, so too now Scottish ministers have had to intervene. Justice Secretary Michael Matheson stopped Mr Gormley returning to office in November. But politicians, at least in government, do not need such headaches.
Two decades ago Dr Oliver was at odds with his police board of local councillors. Mr Gormley, at least recently, appeared to have champions on his equivalent watchdog, the Scottish Police Authority. It has a new chair, a former Labour minister, and is looking for new members. The Oliver and Gormley stories both show just how important it is that candidates of calibre fill those posts.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel