Sir Stephen House is “nowhere to be seen” despite mounting controversies in Police Scotland, including the closure of call centres in Aberdeen and Inverness.
The chief constable has yet to comment on the damning expert report into the M9 crash scandal, which cast fresh doubt on whether the force could manage without the north and north-east control rooms.
Sir Stephen, who is quitting his role on December 1, also failed to attend a crisis meeting of police bosses where it emerged the force’s budget gap had soared to £25million.
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Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie branded the performance of the chief constable “just not good enough”.
When asked to comment on Sir Stephen’s lack of attendance, a spokeswoman for Police Scotland suggested he was on holiday.
She added that he will “remain in post till the end of this month”.
Mr Rennie said: “The report on call handling demands an urgent response.
“With closure of further call centres in the north scheduled, this is something that you would expect the chief constable to take a personal interest in.
“People in the north-east and the Highlands have real concerns over the future of these crucial emergency services.
“It’s just not good enough and it doesn’t end there. The chief constable was nowhere to be seen during a series of critical reports on his flagship policies.”
Larry Flanagan, chair of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), said Sir Stephen’s public absence was not “overly surprising”.
In a letter to Mr Rennie, he added: “There have been no changes to the command arrangements in place within Police Scotland.
“Sir Stephen House remains active as chief constable and will continue to fulfil that command position until he steps down at the turn of the month.
“He has a designated deputy in Deputy Chief Constable Neil Richardson who is available to deputise for the chief constable, for example through periods of leave.
“That arrangement has been in place since the inception of the single service nearly three years ago.”
Sir Stephen missed the SPA meeting which uncovered the force’s spiralling budget gap on October 27 due to “alternative Police Scotland diary commitments which prevented him attending”, he said.
Mr Rennie said: “Given the seriousness of the matter I can’t imagine what other commitments could have been more important.
“I’ll ask again – where is the Chief Constable?”
More than 500 concerned north and north-east residents have already signed a Press and Journal petition calling for the call centre closures in Aberdeen and Inverness to be halted.
You can sign the petition at
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-our-call-centres-keep-999-local
.