COP OR CLOWN?

HANDS up who can name the chief constables of South Wales, Gwent or
Dyfed-Powys police forces?

And it doesn't count if you work for them.

Yet chances are - whether you live in Wrexham, Holyhead, Carmarthen,
Newport or over the border in England - you will know the name of the
chief constable of North Wales Police.

Because no other police chief in Britain has ever so closely courted
publicity as Mr Richard Brunstrom, who this month marks six years in
charge of the force.

Whether volunteering to be shot with a taser gun or breaking into his
own headquarters to expose security, whether continuing his
single-minded campaign against speeding motorists or sending all
homes in the region a newspaper containing a poem praising himself,
Mr Brunstrom has shown the ability to keep himself in the public eye
most politicians would envy.

But, in recent months, Mr Brunstrom's actions have gone beyond
providing just fodder for newspapers and left many clearly
questioning whether a knack for self-publicity is really what's
required for a man leading a police force of 1,600 officers covering
an area of almost 4,000 square miles.

Firstly, he showed pictures of a decapitated motorcyclist to
journalists during a private road safety presentation.

An image showing the severed head of Mark Gibney lying on a grass
verge was shown to journalists and council officials during the
closed presentation last April. But Mr Gibney's family had not been
asked for permission and, worse, not all of his family knew the full
grisly details of his death.

A report from the Independent Police Complaints Commission quoted Mr
Brunstrom saying in an email that pictures that had initially been
planned for the presentation were not "gruesome" enough, but the
photos of Mr Gibney were "outstandingly good".

The family were furious at Mr Brunstrom's apparently callous conduct.

But the Chief Constable himself was adamant who was to blame - the
media, and in particular the journalist who approached Mr Gibney's
family to ask if they had given permission for the pictures to be used.

He said: "I placed too much trust in the behaviour and integrity of
journalists. Some have called this naivety. Perhaps they are right,
but I think I was just stupid."

But for many, the final straw came last week when Mr Brunstrom took
to BBC Radio 4's flagship Today programme to voice his view that
ecstasy was less dangerous than aspirin.

He insisted that the drug - which claims almost 50 lives a year - was
a "remarkably safe substance". And he went on to dismiss what he
called "scaremongering" over the dangers, while predicting that all
drugs would be legalised within 10 years.

Mr Brunstrom insisted "very rare" ecstasy deaths are usually from its
side effects - heatstroke, heart failure or excessive water intake.
By comparison, aspirin was mentioned on death certificates 504 times
in the same period.

"Ecstasy itself is a relatively safe substance - the very rare deaths
seem to occur not from toxicity, but usually from the user's failure
to take adequate steps to deal with its side effects," he said.

But, once again, Mr Brunstrom's comments attracted strong criticism.

Des Delaney, whose 18-year-old daughter Siobhan was killed by a
single pill at a Merseyside nightclub two years ago, said Mr
Brunstrom "should go and stand by my daughter's grave every week and
see how he feels".

Peter Stoker, of the National Drugs Prevention Alliance, said: "Mr
Brunstrom should resign. His comments are increasingly incompatible
with his position.

"The danger from illegal drugs isn't just a question of how poisonous
it is in the short-term - although any dose of ecstasy can kill. "It
includes the damaging behaviour which people are sucked into and the
harm it does to those around them, particularly their families."

And Nick Henderson, executive director of the Aspirin Foundation,
said Mr Brunstrom's comments were "probably the worst-informed
statement I have ever heard."

But Mr Brunstrom brushed all these criticisms aside. Despite it
coming from drug campaigners, experts with far more knowledge than
him and senior politicians, he turned his fire on his usual target -
"sections of the tabloid press which, sadly, seek simplistically to
demonise drugs rather than face the facts".

Yet these were just the latest in a string of examples of Mr
Brunstrom actively seeking publicity.

"I really find it impossible to understand what motivates Richard
Brunstrom," says Shadow Wales Minister David Jones, the MP for Clwyd West.

"There is no doubt that he is a highly intelligent man who takes his
work seriously.

"On a personal level, he can be good company. He is unfailingly courteous.

"Yet he appears to attract bad publicity like a magnet."

Mr Brunstrom is best known for his long-running campaign against
speeding motorists in North Wales, leading to him being dubbed "the
Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taliban" by one writer.

He has claimed that "there is no excuse for drifting over the limit
any more than there is for drifting a knife into someone".

And he even called a press conference to condemn a retired
71-year-old bank manager who was caught doing 39mph in a 30mph zone
and criticised his zero-tolerance policy on speeding.

The former Home Office minister David Mellor once accused him of
making "blood-curdling threats to speeding motorists, while wanting
heroin legalised on logic that would not persuade a six-year-old".

Last month he broke into his own police headquarters at Old Colwyn to
point out a lapse of security, not long after allowing a taser
stun-gun to be tested on him against police regulations.

Under his control, North Wales Police has also pursued expensive and
eye-catching investigations against high-profile figures for racial
slurs against the Welsh.

The then Prime Minister Tony Blair was investigated after a book by
one of his former spin doctors revealed he had shouted "f*ing Welsh"
at a television set as Labour's disappointing 1999 Assembly Election
results rolled in.

Another investigation was launched for alleged racism when Weakest
Link presenter Anne Robinson described the Welsh as "irritating and annoying".

Four senior officers spent 96 hours looking into the comments.

Yet Mr Brunstrom himself escaped any form of censure after using the
word "queers" to refer to homosexuals in 2005.

Politicians are now lining up to have the man who appears to revel in
the title of Britain's most controversial policeman removed.

Darren Millar, Tory AM for Clwyd West, says: "Enough is enough - it
really is time for this chief constable to move on."

Even those who have supported Mr Brunstrom in the past have now come
to a conclusion that he has become a liability.

MP David Jones, who has always previously refused to call upon Mr
Brunstrom to quit, says: "I feel, sadly, that we have now reached the
point where we must say to Richard Brunstrom that if he wishes to
pursue this (drugs) campaign, which he appears so unwilling to
abandon, perhaps it would be best for him to do so in the capacity of
a private citizen and not as the leader of the North Wales police force."

One thing is for certain: Mr Brunstrom is not going to go quietly.

The only question is whether North Wales Police Authority has tired
of their force being known primarily as a springboard for the
political pronouncements of their chief constable.