Opinion

Chris Donnelly: We need 50:50 recruitment to deliver the prize of a fully representative police service

Chris Donnelly

Chris Donnelly

Chris is a political commentator with a keen eye for sport. He is principal of a Belfast primary school.

Dissident republican attacks on PSNI officers today ironically serve to frustrate progress towards the achievement of a police service equally at home amongst those aspiring towards unity as preserving union
Dissident republican attacks on PSNI officers today ironically serve to frustrate progress towards the achievement of a police service equally at home amongst those aspiring towards unity as preserving union Dissident republican attacks on PSNI officers today ironically serve to frustrate progress towards the achievement of a police service equally at home amongst those aspiring towards unity as preserving union

When Simon Byrne was appointed as PSNI Chief Constable, it was widely noted that his elevation was likely to cause him difficulties with a rank and file preferring the new post holder to have emerged from within the organisation.

In the time since assuming office last July, the chief constable has prioritised endearing himself to colleagues as opposed to growing confidence and support amongst the nationalist community for a police service which continues to struggle to decisively move out of the shadows of the old RUC.

The Crossmaglen photograph tweeted by Simon Byrne on Christmas morning struck the wrong note because it betrayed an RUC mindset viewing South Armagh as enemy terrain, policing as protecting a frontier. Worryingly, the press statement he subsequently released did little to suggest he gets why this is a problem.

In any field of life, a leader will always endeavour, as an immediate priority, to gain the support and confidence of colleagues. Failure to do so can prove fatal in terms of capacity to deliver on future plans. The difficulty facing Simon Byrne is that there is a tension between the perspectives and instincts of many within the police and the nationalist community that he has yet to fully appreciate, never mind take cognisance of through his words and actions.

Declassified files released after Christmas relating to the Drumcree saga of the mid-1990s included an assessment from the Central Community Relations Unit observing that “there was a perception that the RUC had not been impartial in their dealings at Drumcree.”

As far as understatements go, that one was hard to beat.

Drumcree provided a rude awakening to some who had deluded themselves into thinking that the RUC were capable - or interested - in acting as an impartial policing service.

In the intervening years, a constant stream of revelations regarding the conduct of RUC Special Branch and other incidents of collusion with loyalist paramilitaries have confirmed that the RUC were very much an active player in the conflict as opposed to the British state’s narrative portraying them as merely a thin blue line separating two warring communities. It was not without reason that the SDLP never endorsed the RUC, though that party always opposed any forms of violence.

Changes to policing that have taken place over the past two decades have meant that the PSNI are a very different outfit to the RUC, though suspicions linger long, nourished by revelations of past RUC conduct.

Mindsets are a product of circumstance and experience. Patten produced a template for a highly accountable policing service, but the genuine new start awaits the influx of a critical mass of nationalist and republican police officers to challenge and broaden prevailing mindsets, bringing a diversity of experiences and outlooks.

Legacy continues to loom large here, and it is not surprising that voices from within the Police Federation and PSNI upper echelons will act and speak in defence of an organisation in the RUC of which many served and watched fellow officers be killed or wounded during our conflict.

Revisiting old grievances and clashing over interpretations of the past is understandable and inevitable, but neither helps build the future we want and, if allowed, can become impediments in the pursuit of something better.

In his famed speech in Frankfurt, John F Kennedy exclaimed that “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past are certain to miss the future.” That speech was delivered in Germany a mere 18 years after the culmination of the Second World War, the same number of years in which the PSNI has now been in existence.

Nationalists and republicans must continue to be all-in on embracing policing as a necessity not just to make better the present but to help secure the future. Our political landscape is changing at a rapid pace. A future Drumcree moment will be Irish unity. Dissident republican attacks on PSNI officers today ironically serve to frustrate progress towards the achievement of a police service equally at home amongst those aspiring towards unity as preserving union.

The onus now is on Simon Byrne to lead the call for a return to 50:50 recruitment, as recently urged by Archbishop Eamon Martin and former chief constable, Hugh Orde. The prize of a fully representative police service is well worth the inevitable protests from those who never bought into the vision in the first place.