Welcome Paul Kernaghan! head of mission Eupol Copps (Palestine)

(B2) It is a British (from Northern Ireland), with a strong character, Paul Kernaghan, who should take the head of the civilian mission of the EU in support of the Palestinian police (Eupol Copps), in January . He replaces Colin Smith, another Briton who also served for a time in Northern Ireland, and had been in post since January 2007 at the mission.

Kernarghan was, until very recently, October 2008, chief constable with the police of Hampshire (south-east of England) since September 1999. He began his career in 1978 at the
famous RUC - the Royal Ulster Constabulary, in Northern Ireland - before moving to the West Midlands Police (1991) and then being appointed as Assistant Chief Constable, in the North Yorkshire Police (1995). After his post in Hampshire, he was due to retire. But he did not hide that at 52, he did not see himself staying quietly at home in an armchair. "I want to continue to work intellectually, otherwise I will go crazy" he explained to our colleagues from the Daily echo.

The man does not have his tongue in his pocket. As international coordinator of the powerful "Association of Chief Police Officers" (ACPO), he had criticized the failures of planning after the war ofIraq, coming to testify before the Defense Committee of the House of Commons in 2005. He notably declared that the British police had not been consulted on the role they could play in the reconstruction of the country torn by war. The same year he
had denounced thelenient sentences" pronounced by the British courts, emphasizing that it was necessary to have effective sentences - and that the police were demoralized by the behavior of the judiciary. Quite ironically, he had also confessed that compliance with the ban on fox hunting was "effectively not a priority" for the police... Even before leaving office, he had spoken out "for a radical restructuring of the police. "I think we should move to a national police force to England. It is simply illogical to have 43 forces. And I think there are huge savings to be made. This is a great debate that should take place. And I'm very disappointed to see politicians from all parties shying away from that. I'm sure that in five years, this subject will come back on the agenda," he added.

A hell of a character!  Kernaghan also chaired the union of police officers, "Chief Police Officers Staff Association" (CPOSA). And in this function, he had also hit the headlines of the Sun who had revealed his alias: "Gene Hunt", from "Life on mars". A pseudonym used to obtain information on bonuses obtained for investigations as well as benefits (cars, health insurance, school bonuses) paid to certain senior police officers. This subterfuge (legal in the United Kingdom where one can ask, when accessing certain information, to have his identity masked) had been used because by making the request, previously, under his official name, he had met with an end of inadmissibility. The information provided had enabled APCO's salary negotiations to be completed. To this day he is furious with the Home Office Secretary (the Home Secretary), sharply criticizing "the way the Secretary handled police salaries last year. Police officers have all the same quality". Deciding on certain bonuses arbitrarily was an "illogical and indefensible decision".

(NGV)

(Picture: BBC/Hampshire Police)