PSNI performance criticised by inspectors as senior officer says lack of money causing on the ground problems
Government inspectors have criticised the PSNI’s performance on preventing crime and anti-social behaviour, as well as its managing of offenders and suspects.
The force needs improvement managing offenders, while its performance deterring crime is only adequate, finds His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.
PSNI deputy chief constable Bobby Singleton attributed the subpar grades to chronic underfunding of the police, which has been a regular gripe of its senior command, and said “immediate action” has been taken to address a backlog in checking through electronic devices.
Describing the inspection report’s findings as “undoubtedly disappointing but not a surprise”, he argued that it’s in line with warnings recently issued by chief constable Jon Boutcher.
"Hopefully this report will achieve what thus far our lobbying has failed to do, and will be the wake up call to properly fund the PSNI,” said Mr Singleton.
The inspectorate, he stated, has uncovered “evidence of what we have been repeatedly warning about for some time” – that cash shortages mean fewer officers in the job, which results in “less policing and a greater risk of threat and harm to the public”.
He said: “The Chief Constable has set out the consequences of allowing the PSNI to fall to our lowest numbers, dangerously below the numbers required by the Patten Commission. This underinvestment cannot continue.”
Maintaining that officers “work tirelessly to safeguard victims and provide a reassuring presence” in the community, Mr Singleton said their efforts make Northern Ireland “one of the safest places to live, work and raise a family in these islands”.
“In terms of preventing and deterring crime, anti-social behaviour and vulnerability, the inspection found many positives particularly around how closely and effectively we work with communities and partner agencies when we have the resources to do so we provide an excellent service,” he added.
"However, we accept the inspectorate’s finding that our performance in this area is at present only adequate principally, due to having lost almost 400 officers through cuts.
“The inspectorate rightly recognised that this was attributable to the long term underfunding of policing in Northern Ireland, resulting in the lowest numbers of police officers in our history. Our frontline neighbourhood and response teams are at significantly reduced strengths, meaning our efforts to prevent crime and protect communities are being frustrated.”
Turning to the management of offenders and suspects, Mr Singleton said issues in that area are also attributable to cash shortages, stating they are “a manifestation of precisely the kind of service impacts we have been warning about”.
“The inspectorate is very clear that our child internet protection, offender investigation units and victim identification and image grading team require additional resources in order to try and keep pace with demand,” he said, adding the PSNI currently has 140 open detective positions with no one to fill them.
"We have previously lost 190 detectives through underfunding,” he said.
“Immediate steps have been taken to address identified backlogs in device examination and visits to offenders and significant improvements have been made."
But he said the police would only be able to fix long term issues if Stormont approves a business case to substantially boost officer numbers.
Policing Board chair Mukesh Sharma agreed, stating the report “details the realities of year-on-year reductions to policing resources”.