It is all too easy to write this off as some sort of 'good old fashioned' activity. The older ones among us recall the screaming red faced sergeant/inspector/superintendent with his face one inch away from the face of a miscreant officer. That was how it was done then, and we were better more robust people for it. But it was not exactly bully boy tactics, the modern version is more mind warfare.
The modern trouble appears different, incideous and threatening tactics. A, now retired, chief constables black balling an employee of a commercial company quite openly may not be new but should never have been so open that it was common knowledge across the industry in days. That 'openness' was an early message to staff members not to even countenance 'terrorist' opinions. What sort of mind labels employees 'terrorist'?
The ringmaster may well have departed but we have to recall that a large number of people have been replaced and selected under that management style. Just pick up an early copy of the NPAS minutes and compare it with a more recent copy. The list of attendees in the early editions included some important faces that simply had enough of the management style and walked. NPAS has not been a happy place and unhappiness breeds flight safety dangers all of their own even if there is a so called safety programme in place. The safety status of that has not ever been demonstrated to me or my far better qualified associates at any time and I have been bringing together law enforcement safety managers from across the Western World for a decade now.
So within NPAS now we have a situation where there are people selected by (an alleged) bully in post. It is my opinion, having met several members of the new NPAS staff...... and I have been in this business almost as long as Tigerfish ..... that there are a fair few bullies lurking in upper management. You might think that best behavior applies when addressing the press and that no-one would actually go so far as to 'bully' the guest into soaking up the party line. Unfortunately I can go witness to that not being the case - which is more than the 'terrorist' staff with a point of view can do.
Throughout this process there has been a steady removal of people with plentiful skills and opinions other than that of the ultimate hierarchy and I do not see change on the horizon.