PSNI in ‘impossible position’ over legacy issues

More than 45 million documents still need processing, but the force lacks the resources to do so, Mr Hamilton told a panel at the West Belfast Festival.

The force also has three legacy IT systems that declining numbers of officers can use and are not capable of communicating with each other.

Mr Hamilton claimed the financial constraints, coupled with legal obligations and public expectations, have left him “in an impossible position”.

“We have a massive vault of disclosure that is creating problems, bad feelings and anger and frustration through the current processes. We reckon there are about 45 million pieces of paper,” he added.

“There are three legacy IT systems that don’t talk to each other, which are not entirely searchable, that the knowledge of even how to use them is disappearing as people leave the organisation.

“We are sitting on mountains of materials, all of which we need to go through.”

Police, loyalist and republic representatives all attended the legacy debate at the Féile an Phobail this week.

The Government is currently consulting on a series of measures to deal with the legacy issues in Northern Ireland as a result of the Troubles.

At the event, Mr Hamilton highlighted that the PSNI sometimes has to appeal court judgments as the force lacks the resources to deal with them in their current forms.

He added that the judgments can at times be contradictory and unworkable, and expressed his support for the remit of the Independent Commission for Information Retrieval (ICIR), which has been proposed as part of the government measures.

The ICIR is intended to help family members privately access information about the deaths of relatives as a result of the Troubles.

Mr Hamilton said: “I support the outcome the ICIR is trying to achieve, we want to engage with it, but it needs to be properly resourced.

“We are sitting on material, we are not going to shred it, we are going to keep it, we are going to act in good faith, but it is a monster.”