PSNI recruitment drive attracts almost 7,000 applicants

Although the number of Catholic applicants is up on the previous recruitment campaign, the percentage (31%) remains the same as the overall number of applicants is up by more than 700 since 2018.

Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said he was pleased that 6,961 people had applied for the 600 trainee constable posts expected to be created over the next year.

Applications from women have risen by 3% (to 2,808) from the 2018 total.

This time around almost 60% of applications were from men and just over 40% were from women.

The PSNI has been trying for a number of years to address the under-representation of Catholics, working-class Protestants, women, LGBT community and ethnic minorities in its ranks.

Following the publication of the latest recruitment figures, Gerry Kelly of Sinn Fein said the decision to abandon the 50/50 selection process – which ensured half of all new officers were Catholic – was a political decision.

The party’s policing spokesperson tweeted: “31% of applicants are from a Catholic background and 41% are women. An accountable police service needs to be representative of the whole community it serves and representative in all grades and ranks also.”

He added: “The decision to abandon 50/50 recruitment was both political and wrong.”

The recruitment campaign was the first one to be publicly supported by Sinn Fein although the party first expressed support to the PSNI back in 2007.