DUP Policing Board member calls on chairman to quit

Policing Board chairman Desmond Rea today faced internal demands to quit as a major new row flared over Northern Ireland’s Full-Time Reserve.

Sammy Wilson, a Democratic Unionist representative on the authority, called for his head after he appeared to indicate the force could cope if the unit is phased out.

Mr Wilson accused Professor Rea of abandoning neutrality and siding with SDLP pressure for the 1,400 officers to be axed.

He said: “That he pumps out political propaganda using his position as chairman of the policing board is reprehensible.

“Let him resign then he can make all the politically-tainted statements he wishes.”

Chief Constable Hugh Orde is due to deliver a security assessment after the summer marching season that could seal the reservists’ fate.

With unionists bitterly opposed to their exit which would begin next April, Mr Wilson was incensed by Prof Rea’s comments in a newspaper article.

The chairman recognised operational concerns and personal anxieties that provoked the Police Federation to claim withdrawing the reserves would hit capabilities hard.

Support packages to aid officers find new employment will be put in place, while a 10-year scheme has been developed to ensure district commanders have enough men and women to cope, he said.

Prof Rea stressed: “We are aware of the need to ensure that operational delivery is sustained and we believe that delivery of the Human Resource Planning Strategy will maintain operational delivery.”

It is understood the two men had a tense telephone conversation before Mr Wilson went public with demands for his resignation.

Full-time reserves already made to feel worthless were “spitting blood”, the East Antrim MLA claimed.

His anger was compounded by a picture of the chairman presenting a police award to an FTR officer.

“He was put on the board as a unionist representative, he announced that he intended to act as a neutral member, but increasingly he has behaved like an SDLP representative.

“His latest outburst is not only overtly political, hurtful to the serving members of the Full Time Reserve who have been made to feel worthless, but according to the PSNI annual report, in which he features with the Full Time Reserve winner of the community policing award, patently untrue.”

Although Prof Rea is believed to be privately dismayed that his comments have been misinterpreted, he kept silent as the row raged.

A board spokesman said: “The chairman has chosen not to comment.”