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Petrol prices up. Jams getting worse. But here's some good news: the Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taliban is calling it a day

By Liz Hull
Last updated at 7:23 AM on 12th August 2008

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It's news likely to have motorists sounding their horns with delight - the controversial police chief Richard Brunstrom is planning to retire.

The head of the North Wales force, dubbed the Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taliban because of his zealous campaign against speeding motorists, revealed yesterday he was likely to disappear from public life when his contract expires at the end of 2009.


Mr Brunstrom, 53, who has also come in for criticism for repeatedly calling for the legalisation of Class A drugs, including heroin, said he plans to buy a boat and go sailing.


(picture)Off-beat: Chief Constable Riichard Brunstrom in Welsh Druid dress



In an interview with BBC Radio Wales, aired last night, Mr Brunstrom said: 'My wife and I intend to retire, sell up, buy a boat and go sailing while we are still fit and young enough to do so.


'I don't want to be the recipient of that old political saw that every political career ends in failure.


'I have a contract that goes to Christmas next year and I suspect by that time I will simply retire and disappear and you will not find me re-emerging as an aspiring politician or indeed in any other field.'


Mr Brunstrom, who has 29 years' police service, also discussed the role of policing, his life and society, including the intriguing reason behind his decision to join the force. He said he was a disillusioned PhD student at Bangor University when, one wet afternoon, he saw a policeman asleep in his car.


'There was a police car parked in the centre of the roundabout with the engine on and the windscreen wipers going,' he said.


'And as I cycled past in the rain, thinking I wasn't enjoying my life much, I saw there was a police officer in the car. He was lying flat in the driver's seat with his hat over his eyes, clearly fast asleep, and I thought, 'I could do that job'.'


Mr Brunstrom has repeatedly come in for criticism for his headline-grabbing views and stunts since being made chief constable in January 2001. Last year he was subjected to an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission and forced to apologise to the family of Mark Gibney, a motorcyclist killed in a road crash, after showing photographs of his decapitated body to journalists without permission.


He was the first chief constable in the country to have his own internet blog and last September, as a demonstration of support for taser guns, agreed to be shot with one by a fellow officer. Footage of the incident was posted on the force website.


Mr Brunstrom, who has also promoted the use of the Welsh language throughout his appointment, said he supported the devolution of policing for Wales away from Westminster to the Welsh Assembly.

'(Devolution) is not just attractive and right, but inevitable,' he said. 'We will end up in a situation that Scotland has now - an independent police service.

'There is a debate to be had following that whether we want an all-Wales national police service.'

Mr Brunstrom, 53, who has also come in for criticism for repeatedly calling for the legalisation of Class A drugs, including heroin, said he plans to buy a boat and go sailing.

'And as I cycled past in the rain, thinking I wasn't enjoying my life much, I saw there was a police officer in the car. He was lying flat in the driver's seat with his hat over his eyes, clearly fast asleep, and I thought, 'I could do that job'.'

He was the first chief constable in the country to have his own internet blog and last September, as a demonstration of support for taser guns, agreed to be shot with one by a fellow officer. Footage of the incident was posted on the force website.

'I don't want to be the recipient of that old political saw that every political career ends in failure.