Department of Justice remains silent after TUV MP Jim Allister raises allegations of 'ruse' to reduce complaints to the Police Ombudsman ref GAA celebrations in Camlough
The Department of Justice has remained silent after an MP raised allegations of "a ruse" to reduce complaints to the Police Ombudsman.
The claims, made by North Antrim MP Jim Allister, relate to apparent celebrations of PSNI officers in south Armagh after Armagh won the All-Ireland GAA championship recently.
The PSNI has launched an internal investigation after video footage emerged that appeared to show police vehicles driving through the village of Camlough sounding their sirens as people cheer from the footpaths.
The criminal law KC also criticised the PSNI and Police Ombudsman, claiming that both bodies had refused to engage with him on the matter.
The TUV leader has now issued a statement of criticism against both bodies.
“In the aftermath of the disgraceful scenes in Camlough following the all-Ireland GAA final, I wrote to both the PSNI and the Ombudsman," he said.
"I was advised by the Ombudsman that they would not investigate my complaint because I had not personally witnessed the incident. Now the PSNI have written to me and told me that they will not be providing updates on their investigation into the matter to me because I “did not directly witness the incident”.
“Tellingly, there is nothing in legislation to prevent the Ombudsman investigating complaints such as the one I made, much less provision for the PSNI to dismiss the need to update the leader of a political party on a matter of significant public interest."
He said the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998 states that the DOJ “may issue guidance to the Board and police officers concerning the discharge of their functions”.
He also claimed the DOJ "pulled a ruse" when it issued guidance entitled “Guidance on Police Misconduct, Performance and Attendance, and Complaints Procedures”.
He noted that the guidance says that if someone views an incident on TV or social media "they are not personally involved” and that "there is no need to record and process complaints from persons not involved in the incident".
Mr Allister said: “This has resulted in the preposterous situation where public representatives with a significant mandate are denied the ability to use the appropriate channels to lodge official complaints which are brought to us by the public.”
At 2:40pm today the News Letter invited the Department of Justice and PSNI to respond to his claims.
Only the PSNI offered any comment.
"As this matter remains subject to an internal investigation, it would be inappropriate to provide any comment at this time," it said.
A spokeswoman for the Police Ombdusman said: “We received more than 50 complaints relating to the incident in Camlough, each of which is being assessed in line with Department of Justice (DoJ) guidance which defines what constitutes a public complaint that can be accepted for investigation by the Police Ombudsman.
"The guidance is clear that complaints about alleged misconduct can only be received from members of the public who are ‘well-informed as to the facts of an incident’.
" In essence, this means that someone must be personally involved in that incident, or acting on behalf of somebody who was personally involved.
"Anyone making a complaint based, for example, on what they have viewed on TV or on social media is not considered to be personally involved. We will be contacting each complainant to inform them if the allegations they have made are within our remit to investigate."