FORTHRIGHT & FEARLESS.

Byline: IVOR WYNNE JONES

NORMALLY I give critics free rein,in the interests of freedom of speech,but too many readers have asked if I can make sense of the latest letter (Daily Post,February 18) from North Wales Acting Deputy Chief Constable Clive Wolfendale.

Acting as his master's voice,Mr Wolfendale claims that when Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom addressed a letter ``Dear (blank),''and then signed it ``on behalf of the 680,000,''before sending it to ten journalists who had challenged his actions,he thought it was a private document!

Now North Wales Police Authority has asked the journalists for a copy of Mr Brunstrom's letter,because the members do not recall being among the Leader's 680,000 subjects who allegedly endorsed what he wrote.

Daily Post readers are not daft,but they are baffled by Mr Wolfendale's assertion that I labelled the North Wales Police as fascists. I never said any such thing,but readers have long memories and they recall another strange letter a year or two ago.

On that occasion Mr Wolfendale suggested I was racist for drawing attention to serious problems with their new computer system,because of the software the North Wales Police had chosen.

So far as I understood at the time, North Wales Police was the only British force using this particular software,although bits of it were in use in Cleveland. When the new Northern Ireland Police asked if they could visit Colwyn Bay to see the system in use, they were toldNorth Wales Police were too busy.

One wonders why?Were they too busy trying to make their computers work,or were they all out on relatively safe roads playing with more reliable speed cameras?

However, the troublesome computer software originated in Canada,prompting Mr Wolfendale to ask,in a letter to the Daily Post,if I had any problems with French Canadians! Readers are still puzzling over that non sequitur.

``Richard Brunstrom is neither Robert Mugabe,nor Adolf Hitler,'' writes his master's voice in his latest letter. But surely nobody could have made that misidentification,for we have all seen plenty of ``mug shots'' of our high-profileChief Constable?

Mr Wolfendale could have added ``neither is he Benito Mussolini,''just in case anyone remembered the Italian dictator who attained power with an obsession for speed.

There is the obvious danger of people reading Mr Wolfendale's letter and saying: if the cap fits, wear it. However the ordinary police officers of North Wales are quite safe on that score,for someone in authority has obviously ruled they should not wear any cap or helmet (or ties).

No one has suggested they are fascists, yet Mr Wolfendalehas seen fit to deny any such allegation in advance of its being made.Why?

Such a thought would be quite different from drawing parallels between the suppression of the press in police states and the raid by three of Mr Brunstrom's policemen on the office of a North Wales journalist, to seize a document which had embarrassed the Chief Constable.