‘We will never allow repressive, sectarian policing’

THIS is an abridged version of Sinn Féin’s statement on policing.

“Since the time of the Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Féin has been involved in a series of negotiations with the British government on the issue of policing. These negotiations were intensified in recent weeks and profound changes secured.

“We stayed out of policing structures until now in order to bring about maximum change. If the Árd Fheis accepts this motion, it will be about us going into a new policing dispensation in order to continue to bring about maximum change and to ensure that the police never again do to our people what they did before.

“Today I put a motion to the Ard Comhairle asking it to convene a special Árd Fheis on policing. The Ard Comhairle has backed this proposal. If others including the two governments and the DUP respond positively, this Árd Fheis will take place in January.

“Included in the motion is a commitment to: democratic accountability — devolution of policing and justice to the assembly; support for the police services, An Garda Síochána and the PSNI and criminal justice system; hold the police and criminal justice systems fully to account both democratically and legally; appoint party representatives to the Policing Board and District Policing Partnership Boards to secure fair, impartial and effective policing with the community; authorise Sinn Féin ministers to take the Ministerial Pledge of Office; actively encourage everyone in the community to co-operate fully with the police services in tackling crime in all areas and actively supporting all the criminal justice institutions; human rights and truth recovery — equality and human rights to be at the heart of the new dispensation.

“In the run up to the Árd Fheis, we will conduct a widespread debate within the party.

“Our view is straightforward. We are committed to Irish unity. We support civic policing through a police service, which is representative of the community it serves, free from partisan political control and democratically accountable. We support fair, impartial and effective delivery of the rule of law. What we don’t support and what we will never allow to happen again is repressive, sectarian and political policing. I realise that this is a very difficult issue for many nationalists and republicans, not because we oppose law and order but because our experience is of a police service which served only one section of the community and which was involved in murder, torture, collusion and shoot-to-kill.

“However, the achievement of the new beginning to policing promised in the Good Friday Agreement would be an enormous achievement and I believe that we have now reached the point of taking the next step. If it succeeds, it will advance the struggle for equality and the search for a just and lasting peace.”