PFNI tells Prime Minister Stormont is ‘major part of policing problem’
The Chair of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, Liam Kelly, has told the Prime Minister that Stormont is ‘a major part of the policing problem’.
Mr Kelly met Sir Keir Starmer when he visited the Police College at Garnerville earlier today. In support of the Chief Constable, Mr Kelly set out the deep and worsening crisis facing the PSNI and made a direct appeal for UK Government intervention.
Afterwards, Mr Kelly said: “This was a short but very productive meeting with the Prime Minister and our new Secretary of State, Hilary Benn MP. Both met with student officers as well as all our officers injured during the last few weeks. Their presence, empathy, and expressions of gratitude for the difficult work our officers do was greatly appreciated.
“We used the opportunity to tell it as it is. We are starved of resources and officer numbers are depleting at an unsustainable rate.
“We’ve on a slippery slope. Right now, we have 6,340 officers on paper. That is some 1,200 officers below Lord Patten’s 1999 recommendations based on having no terrorism and policing in a peacetime environment. More realistically with changes to demands in policing and with the ongoing terrorist threat, coupled with our population increasing by some 300,000 in the intervening period, a survey commissioned by the Chief Constable earlier this year clearly indicated we should have between 8,000 and 8,600 officers.
“Regrettably our Stormont Government is not doing enough to fight our corner. They are shying away and procrastinating instead of leading the campaign to get the resources that are required to maintain the full range of policing services. The commitment to have 7,500 officers in 2020 under New Decade New Approach was not progressed or funded and now our numbers are fast approaching 6,000.
“The pressures our officers are under are worrying and increasing as they work tirelessly and with great professionalism to safeguard this entire community.
“I asked the PM to intervene directly to sort out the mess we are in. We are in crisis and our local politicians, senior civil servants and their Departments need to stop procrastinating and hiding behind suffocating processes that inevitably fail to deliver timely solutions. Policing simply cannot be allowed to fail and needs urgent positive intervention and long-term sustainable funding.
“Time is not on our side and it is my earnest hope that the PM will respond positively to what we had to say to him.”