Three whistleblowers have been arrested after details of chauffeur- driven journeys taken by a newly-elected police tsar were leaked to the Press.
Cumbria Police’s decision to launch a probe into the exposure of the £700 trips – made by its Police and Crime Commissioner Richard Rhodes – has provoked a major political row.
Last night two police staff and another man were arrested as part of the inquiry into ‘disclosure of personal information’.
Another police worker was suspended after agreeing to a voluntary interview.
The investigation began after Mr Rhodes’ office responded to the publishing of his expenses bill for two trips in a Mercedes by ‘raising concerns’ with police.
Last night MPs queued up to protest that the arrests stifled freedom of speech and set a ‘dangerous precedent’.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said the police had been ‘heavy-handed’ and that whistleblowers should be protected.
South Lakes MP Tim Farron added: ‘It is wrong to seek to silence whistleblowers in this case. Details of the expenses of public officials ought to be publicly available anyway, we shouldn’t have to rely on leaks to find these things out.
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‘This information was in the public interest. Most councils publish this information on a regular basis so why not the police commissioner?
To arrest these staff members is high-handed, a threat to free speech and a very dangerous precedent.’
Defence: Cumbria Police say that the commissioner is driven for his safety and the trips were stopped once he saw the cost
The row over Mr Rhodes’ expenses began last week when the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald published details of the trips made by him in a hired Mercedes with a driver.
In one, Mr Rhodes and his wife travelled 25 miles for a dinner with the Archbishop of York at a hotel.
Mr Rhodes, a churchwarden, billed the public £313 for the journey, which was not listed among his official engagements.
The second journey from his office in Penrith to another hotel, the Pheasant Inn at Bassenthwaite Lake, covered 28 miles in each direction and cost taxpayers £385.
The retired headmaster – who is paid £65,000 as commissioner – paid back the money after the newspaper exposed his expenses.
MAY URGES CAUTION OVER SECRET ARRESTS
Theresa May last night urged caution over plans for secret arrests.
The Home Secretary said the Association of Chief Police Officers should be ‘very careful’ about removing the right for people to know who they detain.
Under guidance being drawn up by ACPO on behalf of the judiciary, forces would be banned from revealing the names of those held on suspicion of crimes, to protect their reputation.
Even families and friends would be kept in ignorance and unable to help.
Mrs May told MPs: ‘These are not just black and white arguments.
‘You have to look at them very carefully in terms of the impact that they have.’
Critics say it is an assault on open justice and threatens to turn Britain into a ‘banana republic’.
His staff also said he had used a car and driver for ‘personal safety reasons’ because of his long hours and the practice had now ceased.
However Cumbria Police then visited the newspaper’s editor, Colin Maughan, to ask for information and documents. He declined to pass either to officers, and yesterday said he thought officers had been on a ‘fishing expedition’.
On Wednesday it was revealed that police had been arresting suspected whistleblowers. A 47-year-old man and a woman, 50, were arrested on April 10. Yesterday a 54-year-old man who is not a police employee was arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
Another police staff member, a 59-year-old man, was suspended after a voluntary interview. Mr Rhodes confirmed yesterday that his office had made a complaint to police about the leak.
The veteran local magistrate, who won his post as Tory candidate in November’s elections, said: ‘Nothing more than concerns were raised by my office to the constabulary and a criminal investigation was not requested.’
He added that he had now asked for an investigation into the ‘scale and nature’ of the probe.
The affair raises a number of questions over freedom of speech and disclosure of information that have become sensitive in the wake of Lord Justice Leveson’s recommendations for Press regulation.
Barrow and Furness Labour MP John Woodcock said: ‘The public rightly demand full transparency on the expenses of elected officials and will be alarmed to hear about these arrests.
‘To maintain public trust, Richard Rhodes needs to make clear he had no conversations whatsoever with officers about the handling of this issue and explain why these claims apparently had to be brought to light by a whistleblower.’
Cumbria police said last night: ‘These arrests form part of an ongoing investigation which was launched after police received concerns that confidential information was leaked to the media relating to the Police and Crime Commissioner.
‘Initial concerns were raised by a member of staff within the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner after a member of the local media approached the OPCC for a comment on a story.
‘Cumbria Constabulary has internal whistleblowing policies and processes that support officers and staff who want to raise legitimate issues or concerns in a lawful and appropriate way.’
The affair is the second row in a week over attempts by police to put pressure on local papers.
Sergeant Paul Beale of Hampshire Police phoned staff at the New Milton Advertiser to say that 80-year-old councillor Goff Beck was ‘not happy’ with a story.
Days later he visited the newsroom and said the councillor was dissatisfied that the paper had ‘raked over previous stuff’. His actions were condemned by MPs and freedom of speech campaigners.
A NEW ROLE, RAVAGED BY CONTROVERSY
The arrest of whistleblowers in Cumbria is just the latest embarassment to the newly created role of police and crime commissioners.
Kent PCC Ann Barnes faced public ridicule this month after she appointed a 17-year-old as a £15,000-a-year youth crime tsar – only for the teenager to resign tearfully within a fortnight of her appointment.
The teenager, Paris Brown, stepped down after she was found to have posted a string of racist and obscene rants on Twitter which ended up being investigated by her own force.
Resigned: Teenager Paris Brown
Mrs Barnes has also been criticized for spending large sums on staff and equipment, including £15,000 on a battle bus she has called Ann Force One.
Other PCCs who have faced controversy include former Labour minister Vera Baird QC, who is in charge of Northumbrian police.
She was criticised after saying she would not prioritise tackling low-level drug use because it would take up too much of her officers’ time.
In her new policing plan she has completely ignored drug use.
Elected PCCs were brought in by the Coalition to introduce democracy to policing.
But the campaigns to choose the first of the new commissioners failed to generate interest among members of the public, and turnouts for elections last November were as low as 10 per cent in some areas.
Critics say the system has introduced an expensive and pointless layer of bureaucracy to policing.
PCCs, who earn £65,000 to £100,000 depending on the size of their force, must disclose their expenses every three months, but more than half the 45 in England and Wales have failed to.