Religious imbalance in Northern police ranks highlighted

Fewer high ranking Catholics serve in the Police Service of Northern Ireland than during the old RUC regime’s last days, a report revealed today.

And departing Oversight Commissioner Al Hutchinson, the man monitoring reforms to the force, claimed little effort is being made to recruit top officers from outside to ease the religious imbalance.

However, in his final assessment of the policing overhaul mapped out by former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten’s Commission, Mr Hutchinson said the future was bright with major changes completed and public trust growing.

But even though 140 of the 175 recommendations contained in the reform blueprint have been completed, the Commissioner warned major challenges remained.

One area of concern centred on the reduction in Catholics in top positions, in contrast to the hugely successful overall 50:50 recruitment drive.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) now has more than 21% Catholics, compared with just 8% in 1999.

But Mr Hutchinson insisted more needed to be done further up the organisation.

“The Police Service has provided no evidence demonstrating an effort to identify senior Northern Catholic officers serving in other police services as a means to address the community background imbalance in the senior ranks,” his report said.

“While this appears to be, in part, based on the perceived difficulty in making such identification, it has made no sustained effort to action this potential source of Catholic officers.

“Catholics in the senior ranks stood at 16% in 1999 and now stands at 12%, in a large part due to the number of senior Catholic officers taking advantage of severance.

“In the long run the issue will be addressed by the increasing Catholic representation at the intake end. However, senior representation in the intervening years appears to be left to chance.”

Mr Hutchinson, a former Assistant Commissioner with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, also urged the Treasury to deliver on the Government’s promise to pay for a new £130 million Police Training College.

Another major task, transforming fortified police stations into ordinary buildings as part of Northern Ireland’s peacetime society, has been a slow process with only moderate results, the report said.

And out of a list of 61 obsolete stations eligible for decommissioning, the Northern Ireland Policing Board had approved only 22 for sale by April 2007.

Mr Hutchinson predicted further delays in achieving a normalised police estate as a result of the PSNI’s current reorganisation.

One key area of the reform package involved the civilianisation of some policing jobs, yet it has fallen short of the anticipated replacement of 1,000 posts, the report found.

In his 246 page overview of the policing overhaul, Mr Hutchinson referred to “organisational inertia” on the issue.

He also warned that high levels of public expectation for policing may have to be tempered by future financial realities.