Lincolnshire Police chief constable Neil Rhodes suspended

“It seems to me that the novice Mr Hardwick is flexing his newly found muscles and is making a pigs ear of it. How can you suspend our chief of police without offering any explanation why? This is not looking like a promising relationship is it? I think Mr Hardwick should resign and Mr Rhodes be given his salary to employ a couple more bobbies on the beat!”

“Bolshie and M_C_Donald,

thanks for your pointers on due process. Reading the other article on this website regarding the lack of information regarding the suspension it is very clear Mr Hardwick acted far to early with the suspension of Mr Rhodes. Glad to see the local press are asking the right questions.”

“M_C_Donald,

It's the Police and Crime Panel that sits under the county council that should hold the PCC to account for his actions. It's not clear what the mechanism for getting rid of a useless or compromised one is but the 10 councillors on the panel would make the decision and report him to the IPCC if a criminal offence is committed - and they'd have to appoint an interim PCC until an election takes place.

That makes Reg Shore's comment in the article a tad more worrying than it first appeared.”

“Most politicians with a spine would "stand by their man"

The irony is PCCs are supposed to be non-political posts!

The old system was not perfect, but it was not broken. This new system seems to mean that all the power is potentially put in the hands of an unqualified person, with which a maverick with his own little fiefdom can cause havoc and disruption with (it seems) without redress.

I was not in favour of PCCs in the first place and the actions of Mr Hardwick have done nothing to win me over. One wonders if things are done for effect rather than any benefit just so that a PCC can say "I've done this" to justify his/her position.”

“Perhaps Mr Hardwick could be billed for wasting police time?”

“Hmmmmmmm ... Sounds a little too "politically inspired"

Since taking his position Alan Hardwick seems focused on point scoring against Mr Rhodes. First the custody suite, now this? So much for his pledge to work with and support Lincolnshire Police. So rather than being a constructive asset, his only contributions so far seems to disruptive.

Most politicians with a spine would "stand by their man" until the facts were clear. No such loyalty from "Hasty Hardwick". I wonder, once Mr Rhodes is cleared, will Alan fall on his sword? Fat chance!

My view:

Neil Rhodes : Man

Alan Hardwick: Muppet”

“The BBC report on this hints at a clash between the two and a link between the suspension and the G4S contract for a security suite at Nettleham which the Chief supported and the PCC scrapped.

This is a strong action to take and if the decision turns out to be wrong it shows monumental poor judgement and surely any credibility Mr Hardwick has is then gone - so he must then resign (or be removed though I'm not sure that can be forced).

I sincerely hope this is a well considered action and not taken in haste to gain the bragging rights from being the first PCC to exercise the much vaunted power to hire and fire the Chief Constable.”

“My bet is complete exoneration and a significant amount paid to the Chief Constable in compensation from a tribunal.”

“A very sad day for the police service when the likes of Neil Rhodes can be suspended.”

“"I presume you were among the 85% who didnt vote in the PCC election?"

Correct, he didn't. What he did do, however, was pop up on literally every story that concerned the election and banged on relentlessly about how nobody cared about it - the irony being completely lost on him, of course. This hilarious lack of self-awareness was then compounded on the day of election when he visited a number of polling stations and reported on the number of people voting. It had me in stitches =D”