Hertfordshire police commissioner undecided on deputy role
Dr Rachel Frosh resigned from her role last week - Credit: Archant
THE police and crime commission for Hertfordshire is unsure whether he will fill a deputy post after a colleague resigned last week.
Commissioner David Lloyd has not decided whether he will replace Dr Rachel Frosh, who handed in her resignation after retweeting a Twitter post which included an Adolf Hitler quote.
Dr Frosh, who was paid a £20,000 annual salary for working two days a week, stepped down as commissioner Lloyd’s deputy to enable her to explain her position.
Writing on her personal website, she said: “I felt that I could not continue in that role and at the same time defend myself in the regard that the tweet was about exploring the socialist roots of Nazism – nothing else. It came over as insulting the Labour party and I therefore felt that it would damage the police and crime commissioner’s work with local councils.”
Dr Frosh, who works as a GP and is a Conservative town councillor for Harpenden, has since been suspended from the party’s candidate list, but expects to be reinstated when the facts are reviewed.
About a replacement, commissioner Lloyd told the Comet: “I’ve not made any decision yet. I will reflect on it and come to a conclusion by about May or June. I will need to think through the job specification a bit more and I will think about the process of appointing a deputy if I do decide to have one.
“Clearly it would be a political deputy because it is a political world but that doesn’t mean to say I can’t have a look at who’s out there and available.
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“Some police and crime commissioners don’t have a deputy while some seemingly have 10 of them so it’s early days and I will have to think about it.”
Reacting to the debacle, the head of the county’s police federation – which represents rank-and-file officers – Neal Alston said: “This is a matter of Mr Lloyd, it is with regret that this has happened as it has brought unwanted attention to Hertfordshire. We hope whoever Mr Lloyd appoints in the future will be more politically astute.”