1,000 more frontline police needed
THE chairman of the Police Federation has called for the department of justice to "get its head out of the sand" and recruit 1,000 extra police officers to deal with the dissident republican threat and loyalist agitation.
Terry Spence, who speaks for rank and file officers, commented after chief constable Matt Baggott admitted that policing numbers fell "too quickly" following the paramilitary ceasefires.
The chief constable made his comments while addressing delegates at the Ulster Unionist Party conference in Belfast on Saturday.
In his frank speech, Mr Baggott said the reduction in the number of full-time PSNI officers from 13,000 to 7,000 was done with the best intention and that no one should be blamed for the current difficulties.
He also conceded that some counter-terrorism expertise had been lost due to an "overly optimistic" assessment of the security situation.
Mr Spence welcomed constable's comments, but said he believed Northern Ireland's peace was being "jeopardised" by reducing police numbers when the threat of violence was growing.
He added: "The obvious response to Mr Matt Baggott's analysis is for the Executive's Department of Justice and the policing board to get their heads out of the sand and insist on the necessary funding being made available and the recruitment of 1,000 more frontline officers".
The federation chairman also said the PSNI's remaining full-time reserve officers must now remain.
"As well as the longer term strategy of redeploying officers from desks to frontline the argument is now indisputable that the remaining 230 full-time reserve officers should not be released next March and regular officers about to leave under Patten should be invited to stay on with their retirement arrangements protected.
"Failure to respond to the chief constable's admission on numbers is to further increase the risk to our hard won peace," he said.
UUP policing board member Basil McCrea also welcomed Mr Baggott's statement and said more money was now needed to rebuild police counter-terrorism measures.
"I am not scaremongering - what I am alerting people to is that this will need more money, and more attention, and putting your head in the sand is not going to make it any better.
"There has been complacency by a number of people - not least Peter Robinson - saying that we are at peace. There is peace but there's not reconciliation, and unless we get genuine community support then we are going to be facing the Troubles all over again," he said.
DUP policing board member Jimmy Spratt also welcomed the chief constable's acknowledgement but said former chief constable Sir Hugh Orde should "bear heavy responsibility".
"The argument was always that 10 years was never going to be long enough to effect the changes. I think Hugh Orde and the former chairman of the policing board (Sir Desmond Rea] bear heavy responsibility. They just pushed through change - they just wanted rid of the RUC as quickly as they could."
The South Belfast MLA praised Mr Baggott for his integrity in admitting the shortcomings but said that problems with the pace of change was something he "clearly warned about" for some time.
"I think the (policing] board is now going to have to rethink its position on having armed guards at police stations. I think the chief constable has no option."
Mr Spratt added: "Sinn Fein and the SDLP could be asked to face the situation where the chief constable says, "Look, I'm at the point where I need support - you're going to have to accept that that support is going to have to be military support."
In Saturday's speech, the chief constable praised police in the Republic for their efforts in tackling dissident republicans - and Gardai commissioner Fachtna Murphy for his expressed view that an "attack on the PSNI is an attack on the Gardai".
Mr Baggott added: "They have put significant resources into keeping this problem away from Northern Ireland, on our behalf."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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