PSNI to lose one in seven officers, leaving it 'on its knees' warns Police Federation

In a letter to Stormont parties, Chief Constable Simon Byrne said officers will plummet from 7000 to 6000 over the next three years, despite Patton recommending 7,500.

He said the Stormont draft budget in December cut PSNI funding by £226m which has since extended by a further £90m. Without political solutions, he said, there will be be "a smaller, less visible, accessible and responsive police service".

Policing Federation Chairman Liam Kelly said the deficit will leave the service "on its knees" and urged: “Our devolved institutions must get back to work".

But DUP Policing Board representative Trevor Clarke said the problems were due to "a decade-long underinvestment in policing" and a symptom of "the running failure by successive Justice Ministers to prioritise effective police numbers".

UUP Policing Board Representative, Mike Nesbitt added that the letter was also sent to Justice Minister Naomi Long and that she can "no longer hide behind the excuse that this is an operational matter" given how she chose to get involved in a debate on Prison Service staffing.

But SDLP Policing Board member Sinéad McLaughlin said policing is "just one of the many areas of our society that has been deeply impacted" by the DUP walk out from Stormont.

Alliance MLA John Blair too added that there are "competing pressures on PSNI funding, particularly in the absence of a budget caused by the DUP’s deadlock".

But Policing Board Chair Doug Garrett said the board shares the Chief Constable’s concerns and that he has raised them "directly with the Justice Minister".

However the Department of Justice (DoJ) insisted comparisons between the minister's involvement in prison and policing staffing were invalid.

The Prison Service is a DoJ agency and accountable to the department and the Justice Minister, it said, whereas the PSNI has operational independence and is accountable to the Policing Board.