A row has broken out between Northumbria police and its former police chief over allegations senior officers at the force presided over a sexist “boys’ club” culture.
In interviews with the Daily Mail and BBC Radio 4, Sue Sim, a former chief constable of the force, claimed a significant number of top Northumbria officers did not like being led by a woman and were “money-grabbing” sexists.
But the force issued a robust denial, saying Sim’s claims were “old and tired accusations”, that had been refuted by a wide range of individuals and institutions, including the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), and the GMB and Unison unions.
Sim, who retired last year, was the top officer at Northumbria police when gunman Raoul Moat shot a policeman, his ex-girlfriend, and killed her new lover.
She told the Mail: “My biggest battle was with a culture that was sexist, money-grabbing and run by a ‘boys’ club’ of senior officers who thought they could do what they damn well wanted.”
After claiming that some officers made decisions about promotions while playing golf on the force’s time, she said: “I don’t think the public have any idea of the sort of attitudes that prevail in that force. It was a place of rampant sexism, cover-ups and the sort of behaviour that would not be tolerated in any other workplace.”
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme senior officers did not like being led by a woman who had “demanding standards”.
By way of example, Sim said she stopped first-class travel to protect the force budget but a significant number of senior officers still wanted to claim it. She also stopped all bonuses being paid.
Sim said there were senior officers who had been with the force for 30 years who “believed that they knew the way they wanted to do things”.
“Unfortunately there are a series of senior officers in the force who believe they have the right to be where they are and that they’ve worked there,” she told the radio programme.
“And don’t forget, when I joined 30 years ago that’s exactly what happened. When you got to the top of the service you were entitled to sit back, and you were entitled to earn your due.”
Sim denied she was bitter and added: “The reason I’m pursuing this is it’s so important to change the culture of an organisation.
“My position is I have a significant fear for female victims of crime, female officers within the force, the female staff members of the force. If people will be sexist towards a chief constable then what are they going to do to victims of crime, to officers and staff within the force? That’s why I’m doing this, I’m not doing this for me.”
Sim gave evidence in a high-profile employment tribunal in May relating to alleged sexism in the force, which was lost by the appellant, Denise Aubrey, a former Northumbria police lawyer. All allegations of sexism were dismissed.
However, Sim’s credibility as a witness was questioned in the judgment. It said: “We found that Mrs Sim’s evidence on this point was not credible.”
A spokeswoman for Northumbria police said: “These are old and tired accusations and have been exhaustively looked at by three organisations at considerable taxpayers’ expense.”
The force said Sim’s allegations had been investigated by the new chief constable, Steve Ashman, independent counsel on police misconduct matters and the IPCC and none supported her claims.
In addition, all four staff associations that represent Northumbria police – the Police Superintendents’ Association, Police Federation, Unison and GMB – issued a joint statement on Friday in which they stated that the allegations of sexism in the employment tribunal “painted a picture of Northumbria police that they did not recognise”.
