Ulster Unionist Policing Spokesperson, Alan Chambers MLA has rejected recent calls for a return to a 50/50 recruitment policy by the PSNI.
Alan Chambers MLA said:
“When I have any need to avail of the services of the police it doesn’t matter to me where that officer either worships or was baptised. I suspect most people feel exactly the same. Those calling for 50/50 recruitment, based purely on the religion of potential recruits, complain about a lack of public confidence in the police. Perhaps this has more to do with the constant drip feed of propaganda that Republicans perpetuate against the police rather than the religious make-up of the service.
“Will the return of 50/50 recruitment mean an end to the cowardly placing of bombs by terrorists under officers’ cars, or outside family homes? Will a young Catholic considering a career in the PSNI, not still have the need to hide the fact of what they work at, or stop fearing for the safety of close relatives because their recruitment was based on religion? Hardly. It is these realities that need to be changed rather than calling for manufactured recruitment quotas.
“To suggest that the PSNI will be able to deliver a better or more acceptable service by the use of 50/50 recruitment is an insult to the current officers of the Police Service who continue to serve all sections of our community without fear or favour. Their dedication to duty is clearly not influenced by their religion, or indeed absence of one.
“I really do wonder if policing has become the latest Sinn Fein red line to be deployed as a pretext to thwart the return of Stormont and to further polarise our community.
“I want a Police Service that recruits the best qualified candidates, who are then trained to the high standards set by the PSNI and who will deliver a service based on the pledge officers make when they join up to serve and protect. It should be unacceptable to us all at this time that any process of recruitment would come to a point of considering someone’s religion as a qualifying factor.”