Police chief sent off icers to entertain her son’s school

ONE of Britain’s most senior female police chiefs is facing disciplinary action after arranging for dozens of police officers, along with dogs, horses and cars, to entertain pupils at her son’s private school.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Maxine De Brunner has been placed under a formal misconduct investigation after she asked for a massive deployment of officers and specialist units to Chinthurst School in Surrey, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of £10,000 – at a time when the UK was on high terror alert.

She gave staff a long list of the expensive assets she wanted to spend a whole day at the primary school, including a firing range, an armed response vehicle, riot vans, mounted officers and dogs – even though she is responsible for cost-cutting at Scotland Yard. The controversial event was planned for June, but was cancelled after her bosses were told it was an inappropriate use of scarce resources.

This was especially true as the school is outside the Metropolitan Police’s boundaries and her role includes making £500million of budget cuts for the force.

But The Mail on Sunday can reveal an almost identical event at the school, instigated by 50-year-old De Brunner, has previously gone ahead at huge cost to the public.

A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed last night: ‘An internal report was received relating to the planned deployment of Metropolitan Police units and officers to an event outside London. As a consequence, the deployment was cancelled.

‘The service has asked Hertfordshire Constabulary to carry out a misconduct investigation.’