The Northern Ireland Policing Board has “exacerbated” the current crisis in the leadership of the PSNI, a former chief constable has claimed.
The PSNI has been rocked by a string of controversies in recent months, including a significant data breach and a critical High Court ruling around the disciplining of two junior officers, which led to Chief Constable Simon Byrne announcing his resignation.
The Policing Board, the oversight body for the PSNI, announced that Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton is assuming the responsibilities of the top position.
On Thursday he remained off work following an unplanned medical procedure, and the PSNI service executive team is leading the organisation.
A new chief constable will be in post by November, the Policing Board said earlier this month.
Mr Hamilton was named as being involved in decision-making in the High Court ruling.
Mr Justice Scoffield found that two junior officers were unlawfully disciplined following an arrest at a Troubles commemoration in February 2021.
The event was marking the anniversary of the 1992 Sean Graham bookmakers attack in south Belfast by loyalist paramilitaries, in which five people were killed and nine others injured.
The judge said the officers were disciplined to allay any threat of Sinn Fein abandoning its support for policing in Northern Ireland.
On Wednesday, Sinn Féin vice president Michelle O’Neill said she never threatened to withdraw her party’s support for policing.
Former PSNI chief constable Sir George Hamilton has claimed the interim arrangements do not provide the leadership the PSNI needs at this time.
“I have a concern that the current arrangements that the Policing Board have come up with is not going to provide that leadership, and that’s nothing to do with the individuals, it’s more a structural and a policy decision they have taken,” he told BBC Northern Ireland’s The View programme.
“They made a call that Mark Hamilton would not be appointed as the interim or acting chief constable but rather would be fulfilling the responsibilities of the chief constable when required as deputy chief constable.
“That to me is a failure of leadership on the part of the Policing Board, it puts Mark in an almost impossible position.
“There is a question mark of course around Mark and his involvement in the Ormeau Road decision-making, and the comments from Mr Justice Scoffield in all of that.
“That is the subject of review and potentially investigation. I’m not saying he’s the right person, what I’m saying is this fudge that the Policing Board have come up with is actually exacerbating the leadership deficit at the top of the PSNI.”
Sir George said there are thousands of PSNI officers and staff who “want to be led”.
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“They need to know who the figurehead is and that is important to put somebody in place, even in an interim period, who has the ability and confidence of the organisation to take it forward through this crisis,” he said.
Sir George also said that Mr Byrne “should not have been allowing himself to be influenced operationally”.
“I don’t think politicians advocating for a certain position is this issue here, it’s how the senior executive police leadership team respond to that,” he said.
“The chief constable should not have been allowing himself to be influenced operationally.
“There is a difference between taking people’s perspective and building that into the decision-making and actually jumping straight to placate someone because you have either been threatened or you perceive that you have been threatened, that they’re going to walk away from policing.”
A PSNI spokesman confirmed that Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton “remains absent at this time and the day-to-day leadership of the service continues to be delivered by the service executive team”.