Why the inquiry into bullying might be a sign of a modernising force

THERE is nothing older cops like to do more than declare that policing is not what it used to be. Tango Juliet Foxtrot, they say, coyly using the phonetic alphabet to avoid swearing. The Job’s Foxtrotted, they add for those who are not quite up to their abbreviations.

This time-served joke has been wheeled out a lot since Police Scotland came into being in 2014.

In all fairness, the problems of the national force are rather similar to those of the eight territorial forces it replaced – not least, bad IT – but under a whole new gaze of media and political scrutiny and a system of governance that many feel has yet to prove itself.

But not everything in policing is Foxtrotted. Some things are better. And, perhaps counterintuitively, the latest alleged scandal involving Police Scotland’s chief is a sign of improvement.

Mr Gormley has taken a leave of absence amid two, or potentially three, investigations into allegations of bullying. Bluntly, he is accused of losing his rag and shouting at people on his staff, an inspector, a superintendent and an assistant chief constable.

He denies any wrongdoing and an independent process will decide what the facts are.

However, the very fact such allegations can be made against a chief constable at all demonstrates how policing has come over recent years and decades.

Officers serving today openly talk of early days in their careers when verbal abuse was routine and “robust” conversations the norm.

Past chief constables have also had reputations – fairly or otherwise – for barking orders and berating underlings.

Mr Gormley has appeared mild-mannered and diplomatic to those outside the force. He has revelled in the public-facing part of his job. Some insiders complain he left his muchrespected deputy, Iain Livingstone, to do much of the operational heavy-lifting.

Mr Livingstone announced he was to retire earlier this summer. However, he is understood to be ready to do his duty if Mr Gormley’s tenure is cut short.

Any suggestion of bullying, however, casts a shadow over the force and its efforts to diversify. Mr Gormley’s top team has just one woman. And that is nothing to shout about.