North’s Special Branch faces overhaul

NORTHERN Ireland’s controversial Special Branch police unit is set for a major overhaul after it was severely criticised in a new report yesterday.

A review carried out by Dan Crompton of the British Inspectorate of Constabulary made 11 recommendations in a bid to ensure greater accountability.

But as his policing board accepted the report in Belfast, Chief Constable Hugh Orde insisted the anti-terrorist unit was not being phased out.

He said: “I have no intention of dismantling Special Branch.”

The review was ordered by the board following the seriously flawed police probe into the Omagh bomb in August 1998, which killed 29 people and two unborn children.

Special Branch came under intense criticism over its role in the lead-up to the atrocity after it emerged that police were warned 11 days before about the Real IRA attack but no information was passed to officers on the ground.

Among the key recommendations in the new report is the need for early consultation with a senior CID officer on all pro-active Special Branch-type operations.

Regional police chiefs should also be more closely involved in decisions about deployment on intelligence-led operations, Mr Crompton said.

He accepted it was essential to maintain Special Branch’s ability to target terrorists, but stressed the need for more transparency and an auditable decision-making process.

“My review doesn’t challenge the need for Special Branch and doesn’t seek to undermine Special Branch, it is about improving efficiency and performance in the police service of Northern Ireland as a whole,” he said.

The report has recommended setting up a single Service Intelligence Branch to co-ordinate intelligence collection, evaluation, analysis and dissemination.

Unionist members of the board, who have defended Special Branch against accusations that it has acted as a force within a force, claimed the unit had escaped relatively unscathed.

But Alex Attwood, one of the nationalist SDLP team on the 19-member body, insisted it was a breakthrough for policing in Northern Ireland.

“The old special branch is now being dismantled and accountable intelligence gathering in the future is being created with a new intelligence branch. There is no more important policing priority than this issue,” he said.