The Ulster Unionist Party Leader Steve Aiken OBE MLA, Policing Spokesperson Mike Nesbitt MLA and Justice Spokesperson Doug Beattie MC MLA, have met with the Chief Constable Simon Byrne to discuss concerns regarding policing.  

Speaking after the meeting Steve Aiken said:

“We outlined our commitment to support the PSNI but voiced our concerns at recent events. In particular we want to see due process applied to the two officers who have been affected by Friday’s incident on the Ormeau Road. With that in mind we want to see the Police Ombudsman conduct and conclude the investigation as a matter of urgency and we also want to see the organisers answer questions too.

“For literally years now we have been highlighting the need to ensure the Police have all the resources they need to carry out their job as effectively as the community wants them to. They have never even come close to meeting the staffing levels suggested by Patten 20 years ago, and just last week we learned that rather than be able to look forward to 500 additional officers recommended in the ‘New Decade New Approach’ paper, budget cuts threaten the loss of a further 300 officers.

“Given all that is going on this really is not the time to be cutting police numbers. We will be urging the Justice Minister to make the strongest possible representations in the Executive to ensure that new officers are recruited and losses do not take place.

“Finally, as a society we need to support the police officers who we send out onto the streets on a daily basis, to face unknown danger as a matter of routine. Like the rest of us, they will make mistakes on occasion, but they require our understanding and our support and no political party should ever seek to use the police for political purposes, or we will turn a very difficult job into an impossible one.”