North's Police Federation slams new rules

The North's Police Federation has objected to a new policy obliging all PSNI officers to declare their membership of organisations like the Freemasons, the Knights of Columbanus or the Orange Order.

The planned guidelines are part of the Patten proposals on police reform in the North, but the Police Federation said it feared that they could lead to allegations of bias.

It said that people detained by the police could accuse the arresting officer of bias, even though the membership lists would not be made public.