IT’S MORE like Bridget Jones’s Diary with handcuffs and a truncheon than a friendly monologue from PC Dixon on the steps of Dock Green station.

Richard Brunstrom, whose evangelical promotion of speed cameras earned him the nickname of “the mad mullah of the traffic Taleban”, has become the first chief constable in Britain to start a blog. It is also his intention to “get into podcasting” — an initiative that’s likely to to be christened a “plodcast”.

And if you thought that coppers took too much pleasure in their work, the news that Mr Brunstrom likes nothing more on his days off than to arrest dozens of motorists will only reinforce that view.

He has been putting forth his news and views on the North Wales Police website. He explains: “Always keen to innovate and to make full use of modern communications, I have decided to become the UK’s first blogging chief constable.”

Mr Brunstrom, 51, who is notorious as the hardline head of road policing for the Association of Chief Police Officers, describes how — free from the cares of office and in the absence of his wife — he had fun on a rest day doing some frontline policing.

Dated Monday, July 17, his blog reads: “On Saturday I spent the day (should have been my day off, but my wife’s away, so I can sneak off to have some fun) out near the Wakestock Festival at Abersoch with our ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) team.

“We did a 12-hour stint on the A497 in the outskirts of Pwllheli, in baking sunshine. This part of Wales is one of the nicest places on the planet in good weather — shame it doesn’t happen more often! “The camera read 5,891 number plates, from which we had 321 hits, resulting in us stopping 109 cars.”

The chief constable goes on to describe with enthusiasm how he and his team arrested drivers found to be carrying drugs — leading to his first arrest of the year, he notes with pride — and caught a few uninsured drivers into the bargain. “Also, we seized a couple of cars that had no insurance — we have everbody’s insurance details on the computer nowadays, so there is no hiding place. If your car isn’t insured look out!”

Mr Brunstrom, who was once forced to apologise after referring to gays as “queers”, courted controversy most recently by dispatching his force’s finest to investigate the remark “f***ing Welsh” allegedly made by Tony Blair after disappointing results in the 1999 Welsh Assembly election. His public image will not be improved when people read the relish with which he carries out his duties.

“Over the whole Wakestock event the team have arrested 77 people, a really creditable effort by some of our most dedicated and enthusiastic officers. It’s a pleasure to work with them — and fantastic to get a full day out on the street doing ‘real’ police work, to keep my hand in. And it’s amazing what you learn about the way the organisation really works, too.”

The chief also reveals how on Sunday he relaxed with his son by riding a local cycle path from Rhos-on-Sea to Llanfairfechan but found parts of it a death trap. He promised to try to do something about it.

He signs off: “Well that’s all I can be bothered to write (it’s Sunday evening at half past eight). I’ll be back soon, though — perhaps not daily, but frequently, as long as I have something to say, so watch this space if you’re in the least bit interested. Regards, Richard.”

TALES FROM THE TRAFFIC TALEBAN

‘I got my first arrest of the year (frustratingly I’ve been locked in the office for most of the year on the Home Office’s abortive police mergers plan) — a guy from Anglesey with £20 worth of herbal cannabis in his car’

‘I’m shocked to recall that the last two people I arrested were fighting with me in the street in Llandudno on Christmas Eve last year; they and I were both in the cell block when the clock struck midnight, but they apologised, accepted fixed-penalty fines and were home by Christmas morning’

‘We took one of our drugs sniffer dogs with us — a lovely spaniel. She had a great time rooting through people’s cars, and did find some Class A drugs (the more serious/dangerous ones)’

‘During the day the team arrested 22 people, mostly for possession of relatively small amounts of cannabis. Nowadays all we do for simple possession of cannabis is seize the drugs, issue a formal street caution (dealers get different treatment) and let the person go almost immediately — the process takes only half an hour or so, at the roadside’

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