THE policing crisis in Grampian and the public dog-fight which ensued has resulted in the creation of a new policy forum.
Scottish police chiefs will meet Government Ministers, senior civil servants and local government leaders to hammer out common ground. Both sides tacitly acknowledged yesterday that the object would be to avoid any repeat of the Grampian events.
The move came as Henry McLeish, the Scottish Home Affairs Minister, met with the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland as a guest at their annual conference.
The forum will be held six monthly and will shape the future of Scottish policing, running in parallel with the Scottish Parliament while not usurping its final say.
An immediate key issue will be the structure of the Scottish force, a debate which was started by Mr McLeish and Donald Dewar, the Scottish Secretary, in the immediate aftermath of the Grampian affair, when they questioned whether the current eight forces was the optimum number to provide effective and efficient policing as well as best value for money.
There was also a feeling that the three-way agreement between local government, central government and the chief constables - the pact upon which consensual policing and accountability is currently built - had got out of kilter, with the high-profile intervention of Government ministers signalling a departure from consensus.
It also appeared to some Scottish officers that the Government used the issue as a tactic to divert attention away from what many commentators saw as the opportunistic intervention by Scottish Government ministers, using their favoured tabloid medium, in the attempted sacking of Dr Ian Oliver, Grampian's chief officer. The forum would allow for a more mature and considered approach in future.
q Mr McLeish announced to the chief officers the appointment of the next Chief Inspector Of Constabulary for Scotland - Mr William Taylor, a Perthshire Scot whose police career has been in England.
Mr Taylor, 51, joined the Metropolitan Police in 1966, rising to Commander. He moved on as assistant commissioner with City of London Police to become deputy chief constable of Thames Valley and assistant commissioner with the Metropolitan. He became commissioner of City of London Police in 1994 and joined the English inspectorate earlier this year.
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