Draft policing plan ‘next to worthless’ without funding, says PFNI
A draft five-year policing plan will be “next to worthless” without a proper budget or required officer numbers, says the Police Federation for Northern Ireland (PFNI).
Published this week by the Northern Ireland Policing Board (NIPB) and Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the draft plan “focuses on the positive changes we can make to enable PSNI to deliver the service that the public expect and deserve”.
But PFNI chair Liam Kelly said it was a “missed opportunity” for NIPB to call out the “penny-pinching of the Northern Ireland Executive” and its failure to provide adequate financial funding to the PSNI.
“I welcome the fact that the NIPB provides some acknowledgment about the harsh realities of where the police service is right now,” he said.
“The PSNI has a restricted, inadequate budget, the lowest officer numbers in its existence, and an overstretched workforce left to balance increasing and competing demands.
“At first glance, this plan regrettably falls short of truly appreciating this fuller context to the awful and worrying position the PSNI currently finds itself in.”
A consultation has been launched on the draft plan and its three outcomes for policing over the next five years:
- The PSNI is victim focused;
- We have safe and engaged communities with confidence in policing; and
- The PSNI has a representative, valued and enabled workforce.
However, Mr Kelly said the three suggested objectives were “wholly aspirational and all are unlikely to be achievable if PSNI remain insufficiently funded and officer numbers continue to diminish”.
“This should have been another opportunity for NIPB to call out the penny-pinching of the Northern Ireland Executive and their abject failure to provide adequate financial funding to the PSNI,” he said.
“The PSNI cannot build its workforce and effectively deal with the varied and complex nature of all crimes reported to them. To seek to set them outcomes without being properly resourced or funded is truly hysteron proteron.
“The chief constable, at the launch of this consultation, called it correctly when he said we were at ‘a watershed moment’.
“We all have to face the harsh reality that we do not have enough officer numbers to keep people safe. We’re below 6,300 with the stark prospect of slipping below 6,000 by the end of this financial year.”
Mr Kelly added: “It would have been more preferable if the Board had stood four-square with this federation and the chief constable and used the launch platform to tell ministers that you can have all the grand plans you like, but if you don’t provide the PSNI with the budget or the officer numbers, the policing plan will be next to worthless.”
He said the federation will be making a “detailed submission” to the NIPB as part of the consultation, which closes on December 10.