The Chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, Terry Spence, has applauded the acknowledgement of the Chief Constable that police numbers have "fallen too quickly" made yesterday at the annual party conference of the UUP.

"This is honest recognition that more resources are needed to deal with the dissident republican threat and loyalist agitation.
 
"The Federation has spoken out for the last few years and especially in recent months that we were jeopardising the peace by reducing police numbers and capability when the threat and incidence of violence were quite evidently growing. The Chief Constable says there is no-one to blame but frankly there has been a collective naivety and an overeager rush to portray normality by the Northern Ireland Office, by the PSNI until now and our politicial parties.
 
"The obvious response to Mr Matt Baggott's analysis is for the Executive's Department of Justice and the Policing Board to get their heads out of the sand and insist on the necessary funding being made available and the recruitment of 1,000 more frontline officers. As well as the longer term strategy of redeploying officers from desks to frontline the argument is now indisputable that the remaining 230 Fulltime reserve officers should not be released next March and regular officers about to leave under Patten should be invited to stay on with their retirement arrangements protected. Failure to respond to the Chief Constable's admission on numbers is to further increase the risk to our hard won peace." says Mr Spence.
 
ENDS

Release Date - 06 Dec 2010