The Times - UK (2022-05-26)

the times | Thursday May 26 2022 19

News

The New Zealand police reformer who
wants to run Scotland Yard has a drink-
driving conviction.
Mike Bush, one of six applicants for
the role of Metropolitan Police com-
missioner, was 23 and had been a police
officer for five years when he was
caught driving over the legal limit.
He went on to become New Zealand’s
most senior police officer, with an
impressive record of improving public
confidence and driving down crime
rates.
Policing sources questioned whether
Bush would be able to overcome the
conviction, given that the biggest chal-
lenge for the new commissioner is to fix
the Met’s culture and improve behav-
iour standards.
Dame Cressida Dick resigned in Feb-
ruary after public trust in the Met

A care worker claimed that he had been
sexually discriminated against by a
female boss who called him “50 per cent
of a man” for driving an automatic car,
an employment tribunal was told.
Michael Fuller said he was harassed,
victimised and discriminated against
because he was a man in a predomi-
nantly female workforce.
He alleged that Hazel Roberts, his
area manager, told him he was less of a

Boss told worker he was less of a man for driving automatic

man for driving an automatic instead of

a manual, and called him “gay” for

using too much aftershave.

Fuller, who is heterosexual, said he

had been a victim of sexual orientation

discrimination.

However, the tribunal, sitting in

Reading, dismissed his claims, ruling

that they either did not happen or were

not serious enough to be classed as

discrimination. It said that the com-

ment about automatic cars was “an

ill-judged joke” but that it did not

“violate his dignity”.

The tribunal was told that Fuller had

worked for the care provider Acasa

from 2016 as a team leader at Place

Court, a supported housing site for

older adults in Aldershot, Hampshire.

In 2018 Fuller said Roberts had made

a number of comments about him,

including calling him gay. Roberts

denied making them. The tribunal

accepted that Roberts had made the

“50 per cent of a man” comment but

said: “We find that this comment did

not have the effect of violating [Mr

Fuller’s] dignity or of creating an intim-

idating, hostile, degrading, humiliating

or offensive environment for him.”

The tribunal was also told that Fuller

had accused Roberts in 2019 of bully-

ing, invasion of privacy, victimisation,

breaking confidentiality and other

offences, and claimed that he had not

had a pay rise when his colleagues had

been given one.

When Fuller lost these claims, he

appealed and again lost.

The tribunal rejected the claims of

sexual harassment and discrimination

and found that Roberts would have

treated a woman in Fuller’s circum-

stances in the same way.

Met candidate’s drink-drive conviction

plummeted in the wake of a series of

misogyny, sexism and misconduct

scandals.

Bush, now aged in his sixties, was off

duty in 1983 when he was caught drink-

driving in Auckland. The conviction re-

ceived renewed publicity in 2017, three

years into his term as New Zealand

commissioner of police, following

questions from the media.

Bush confirmed that he was a detect-

ive constable at the time, pleaded guilty,

received a NZ$250 fine and was dis-

qualified from driving for six months.

At the time he was able to keep his job

but eight years later the rules were

changed to make it more likely officers

would be sacked in the event of such a

transgression. He wrote in a blog in

2017: “It was extremely poor judgment

by me 34 years ago, for which I am sor-

ry. I make no excuses.”

Sources said that a mistake made in

youth might ordinarily be forgiven but

was more difficult when the Met needs

to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to

any officer who breaches standards.

The Home Office and City Hall have

made clear that Dick’s successor would

need to bring drastic improvements to

the force, restore public trust and tackle

its serious culture problems.

One police source said: “If I was

to pick a wild card, it would be him

because he’s a complete outsider

and that’s attractive at the

moment, given all the Met’s prob-

lems. But in the context of

improving standards, the drink-

driving issue is very tricky.”

Bush, who ran New Zea-

land’s police force for six

years until 2020, carried out wide-

reaching reform and transformed the

service. His focus on prevention rather

than prosecution led the crime rate to

fall by 20 per cent and public satisfac-

tion increase five points to 84 per cent.

Bush told The Times that he expected

to address the drink-driving conviction

with the decision-making panel but

declined to comment further.

Applications are being re-

viewed over the next fortnight

before interviews.

Sir Mark Rowley, the former

counterterrorism chief who also

ran Surrey police, is widely con-

sidered the frontrunner. Row-

ley, a well respected

figure, urged reform

when he ran for the

Met in 2017 but lost

out to Dick.

Shaun Sawyer,

the chief constable of Devon and Corn-

wall, is understood to be liked by Priti

Patel, the home secretary, after he over-

saw the smooth policing of the G7 sum-

mit and because of his work on county

lines drugs gangs.

Jon Boutcher, who is leading the

inquiry into unsolved murders in

Northern Ireland, has been credited

with completely reforming Bedford-

shire police. He was a senior Met

detective and has held significant

counterterrorism roles.

Nick Ephgrave, a Met assistant com-

missioner, is the only internal candi-

date, although he was damaged when

he suggested that women concerned

about predatory police officers should

flag down a bus for help.

Kevin Hurley, the sixth applicant,

who is a former Met detective chief

superintendent, is not eligible because

he did not reach a senior enough rank.

Fiona Hamilton Crime Editor

As an outsider Mike

Bush was seen as an

attractive candidate

GETTY IMAGES

Amazon

jungle’s

lost towns

uncovered

I

n 1925 Colonel

Percy Fawcett

stocked up on

machetes, rifles, a

ukulele and British

pluck, and set off into

the uncharted Amazon

to find the lost City of Z.

Somewhere, hidden in

what he called “the last

great blank space in the

world”, this great

explorer was convinced

there lay a fallen

civilisation. We do not

know whether he found

it: he never returned

(Tom Whipple and

Norman Hammond

write).

Now, though, the

hidden crannies of

Fawcett’s blank space

have been illuminated

with modern technology:

revealing the details of a

vast jungle city on the

edge of the Amazon,

much of which had been

obscured by vegetation

for centuries.

Using lidar, which is

able to see through the

canopy, researchers have

surveyed a territory in

modern-day Bolivia of a

size that would have

defeated Fawcett’s

machete. Within it, at a

site already associated

with a lost culture, they

have mapped hamlets,

villages, towns,

causeways and massive

monumental earthworks

— including a five-

metre-high mound the

area of 30 football

pitches, that they

estimate would have

taken half a million

person-days to build. On

the mound itself, they

found 20m-high earth

pyramids. Although the

team had known they

would find the remains

of an ancient settlement

from a culture believed

to have existed from

AD500 to 1400, almost

half of the 26 sites they

mapped were completely

new. They said they were

taken aback by the scale.

“We were very surprised

the first time we

surveyed the maps,”

Professor José Iriarte,

from Exeter University,

said. Referring to the

pyramids, he said: “This

is completely unheard of

in Amazonia.”

Until well into the late

20th century there was

scepticism that the

Amazon could have

supported anything

other than hunter-

gatherers. In recent

decades evidence has

emerged of irrigation,

earthworks and large

towns. At the Bolivian

site, located among

savannah and forest,

archaeologists had

uncovered artefacts in

graves that implied a

hierarchical society,

with richer residents

buried with jewellery

made from lapis lazuli

and jaguar teeth.

Understanding the

scale of the culture has

been hard. It fell before

the arrival of the

Spanish, its streets and

houses reclaimed by the

jungle. This is where the

lidar comes in. Iriarte

and his team used

aircraft with laser

scanners that create a

radar map of the land

beneath the canopy —

revealing structures that

would often be invisible

even if you were

standing on top of them.

A welcome breakthrough,

leading article, page 33

Hidden beneath the jungle

in Bolivia are the remains

of settlements, top, and

platforms and mounds

revealed by lidar images

2,000ft

Ruins

Canopy

Pulses

Lidar (light detection and of light

ranging)

technology

aims pulses of

light towards

the ground

Most beams of light

reflect off the forest

canopy but a few reach

the ground. These

reflect back through

the gaps in the canopy

1

2

3

How Lidar

works

By measuring the

distance light travels to

the ground and back,

researchers can

digitally delete the

canopy to create

topographic models