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How would you describe Dick Brunstrom, chief constable of North Wales Police? Good cop? Bad cop? Before you decide, read on. A man in such a position has an awful lot on his plate, can't possibly deal with every crime on his patch and therefore needs to get some priorities into his working life. He's a policeman, so surely his main task is to protect and serve the people who pay his wages, hunt down the real criminals, then deliver these bad boys and girls to court where it's the job of magistrates, judges and juries to decide how they should be dealt with?

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By Mike Rutherford

18th February 2004

What do I mean by real criminals? Top of any sensible person's list would be killers, sex offenders, burglars, violent people and drug dealers. Then there's the people smugglers, weapon carriers, muggers, thieves, vandals and uninsured or drunk drivers. But Brunstrom's priority seems to be humble motorists who occasionally creep over speed limits. Big deal. In most cases it causes no harm, there are no victims and it simply doesn't matter.

But jobsworth Brunstrom's unhealthy obsession plays right into the hands of the bad guys. That's because there are only so many hours in a day for him to do his 'policing', and every one he devotes to insignificant motoring offences is an hour less for him to hunt down real criminals. I've often wondered how a small cop in the northern part of a little country can have such an unreasonable personal agenda against the drivers he is supposed to serve. But now I've been treated to a revealing insight into the mind of the man - following his bizarre comment that heroin "is not very, very dangerous".

Furthermore, Dodgy Dick says: "It is perfectly possible to lead a normal life and hold down a job while being addicted to the drug." He also asks: "What would be wrong with making heroin available on the state for people who want to abuse their bodies?" Needless to say, an embarrassed Association of Chief Police Officers has distanced itself from these comments. Instead of waging war on the legal pastime of driving, shouldn't Dick be tackling the wholly illegal pastime of heroin abuse instead?

He has lost sight of the fact that, as a uniformed copper, his priority - indeed his job - is not about being overzealous with the laws (as he is with motorists). It is not about changing the laws (look at his heroin comments). But it's about getting his priorities in the right order and dealing with the laws that exist. You're barking up the wrong tree, Dick. If you want to target motorists, go find the car thieves, the drugged and drunk drivers, the motorists doing inappropriately fast or slow speeds, the uninsured and the unregistered road users. You might also like to find, catch and bring to court the drug dealers and the hopeless heroin users who break into cars to feed their wretched habits.

The fact is, heroin is a vile, highly addictive, Class A drug that's directly responsible for the painful death of one of my close friends and countless other users. For a senior cop to pretend it's not a very, very dangerous substance is an insult to the citizens he's supposed to serve - and evidence that he can't even get his facts, never mind his priorities, right.