Police reserve in the North scrapped

The North’s full-time police reserve is to be scrapped, Chief Constable Hugh Orde confirmed today.

He made the announcement after a private meeting with members of the Policing Board in Belfast at which he told them there would be no reprieve for the 500-strong full-time reserve.

The pool of reserve officers will finally be cut from police ranks in line with the Patten reforms that transformed the Royal Ulster Constabulary into the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Reserve officers will start to leave next March and will all be gone by March 2011, said Orde.

He insisted no gaps in frontline policing would be left by their departure as he would move non-operational officers into their places.

The Chief Constable said no one liked to lose officers but it had to be remembered the full-time reserves were available only for security duties, not everyday policing.

He praised the reservists for having done “outstanding work during the Troubles and into the present day”.

Orde said: “I have told the board today I have no intention of losing any members of the full-time reserve until March next year and in that time I will make absolutely sure that non-operational officers are put on the frontline so you see no change in frontline response policing.”

Orde is due to leave the Chief Constable’s post in September and the Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, asked that a final decision on the reserve be left to his successor.

However he decided now was the time for the decision and the announcement.

He pledged: “There is plenty of time to manage this with absolutely safety.”