PSNI says its investigations are slower thanks to 15 years of 'significant underfunding'
The PSNI has released a statement saying it has faced “significant underfunding since 2010”.
It comes after its chief operating officer Pamela McCreedy today gave evidence to MPs at the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in Westminster.
The PSNI statement said that the underfunding “has led to a declining police officer and staff headcount in Northern Ireland and is having a serious impact on victims of crime, local communities and the PSNI’s workforce”.
It said that since 2010 “the PSNI’s budget had reduced by 3% while health spending had increased by almost 90%”.
It listed the effects of this as follows:
"Reduced Neighbourhood policing where PSNI currently has 305 fewer neighbourhood officers than in 2014 and 79 fewer than 12 months ago. Despite the importance of Neighbourhood policing, the service has had to amalgamate a number of Neighbourhood Policing Teams to cover larger areas and a previous commitment to provide 16 hour daily coverage of neighbourhood policing has had to be removed”;
"A reduced capacity to investigate crime meaning slower investigations, and in some cases, a less satisfactory service to victims and knock on delays for the criminal justice system”;
And “11 of Northern Irelands 28 station enquiry offices closing last year”.
Ms McCreedy told MPs that the PSNI has submitted what it called “an urgent recovery plan” to the Department of Justice to recover officer and staff numbers to 7,000 and 2,572 respectively over the next three years – but “the additional cost is estimated at around £200M over a five-year period and will require additional funding”.