'It won't happen again on my watch' vows police commissioner in wake of Nick Adderley sacking as vetting procedures come under spotlight

Speaking after the hearing, Northamptonshire Police Fire and Crime Commissioner Danielle Stone, who was voted in to replaced disgraced Stephen Mold – the man who oversaw the appointment of Mr Adderley – promised residents it wouldn’t happen again.

She said: “I'm really relieved that we've come to a conclusion and we can now move on from what's been going on I think it's a very sad indictment actually that we've been engaged in a process like this at all but I'm glad it's over.”

Speaking of concerns raised by the panel’s regarding the vetting process for Mr Adderley she said: “They it was quite right to be and I'm really quite alarmed by it myself and it'll be one of the first things I raised with our new home secretary after the election, I think obviously we need to improve our processes and definitely need to improve vetting.

“I'm not sure that he did (slip through the net). I think there was a conception of what a chief constable would look like. I think he ‘met the bill’. For me a chief constable would look slightly different or a lot different.

"I would be looking for somebody with competence and integrity first and foremost so I think we need to have a competency framework to measure candidates by."

Ms Stone reassured the public that it would not happen again ‘on her watch’ and she would go through paperwork for appointments but she could not say if previous appointments would face the same scrutiny.

She said: “It won't happen again on my watch, I can assure everybody of that because I shall go through all the paperwork myself and not leave it to anybody else.

"I'm not sure we've got the time or the resources to do that except for where it becomes apparent that there's something going wrong and in that case I certainly will do what I want to do is our processes going forward are all the correct ones.”

In a message to the public she added: “What would I like them to understand is that Nick Adderley is now out. We have new leadership team in at the police who are really great. Everything I've seen from that leadership team and all the police force is about people wanting to do their very best for the community. People who understand the community and people who know that they are public servants and there to do their best, so I’m very encouraged that we're entering a new era and it's going sure to be much better.

"I am very interested in how locally we can improve the relationship between the police and the people and I think we need to do that by bringing back neighbourhood policing and making sure the communities know their local sergeant, officers and PCSOs.”

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) echoed Ms Stone’s commitment.

IOPC regional director Emily Barry said: “Public confidence in policing needs chief constables to demonstrate the highest standards of conduct and set an example to their colleagues. The panel’s findings show that Mr Adderley’s conduct had fallen well below the professional standards of any police officer, never mind a chief constable.”

The IOPC investigated a range of allegations against the chief constable of misrepresentation of his past naval service and in January recommended that he should face gross misconduct proceedings.

In April the IOPC referred an evidential file to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for them to consider any potential criminal charge. A referral to the CPS does not mean that any charge will necessarily follow.