Calls for British police chief to quit for taping call
Sir Ian Blair, London’s police chief, also recorded calls with members of a commission investigating the shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, his office said.
The revelations, the latest in a series of gaffes, have prompted calls from some quarters for Mr Blair, who only took charge of London’s 30,000-strong force last February, to quit.
A police spokesman said that last September, the Metropolitan Police chief had secretly taped a call from Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith on the admissibility of telephone wire tap evidence in British courts.
Mr Goldsmith said he had spoken to the police commissioner yesterday and had received an explanation and apology.
“As far as the Attorney General is concerned, the matter is closed,” a spokeswoman for Mr Goldsmith said.
Mr Blair’s office said: “He (Blair) thought that they would be discussing a complex issue and, as he was without a note-taker, it would be helpful to have a record of the conversation.”
The police also said Mr Blair had taped three calls with members of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), a government-funded watchdog investigating his conduct after the shooting of Mr de Menezes last July.
His fate now rests with the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) which oversees the London police force and can take disciplinary action against him.
Richard Barnes, one of the MPA’s members, said Mr Blair should “be considering his position” and Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, said the revelations “beggared belief”.
“His behaviour appears to be unconstitutional, unethical, quite possibly unlawful,” she told BBC radio.
The police chief has been under growing pressure since Mr de Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian electrician, was shot dead on a London underground train last July 22 by officers who mistook him for a suspected suicide bomber.
