The Ulster Unionist Party’s Policing Board representative, Mike Nesbitt MLA, has called for urgent action to resolve a crisis which is developing with regard to Policing numbers, which are already almost 500 below what the Patten Report recommended and which could fall by a further 300 due to budget pressures.  

Mike Nesbitt said:

“Police numbers have long been a source of great concern with successive Chief Constables having to police Northern Ireland without sufficient resources.

“In response to a recent Assembly question, the Justice Minister told me that as of 8 February 2021, the total number of police officers was 7,005. This is concerning on a number of fronts.

“The Patten Commission recommended that the PSNI should have a force of 7,500 full-time officers and that they should be backed up an enlarged Part-Time Reserve of up to 2,500. The current strength is almost 500 shy of what Patten wanted and there is no Full Time Reserve. The ‘New Decade New Approach’ document also made reference to a figure of 7,500. 

“At a recent Policing Board meeting the Chief Constable warned 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, putting us a staggering 795 below the strength recommended by Patten and promised in ‘New Decade New Approach.’

“If we as a society really want the Police to protect and serve this society then we have to play fair by them and give them the resources they require to do their job. Asking them to do that job with a complement that is more than 10 per cent under strength is simply setting them up to fail and totally unfair on those officers who are already in post.   

“Urgent action is required now to both ensure the Chief Constable retains the 300 officers he is worried about losing and also gets the additional 495 as promised in ‘New Decade New Approach’ and recommended by Patten. The Justice Minister needs to make closing the Chief Constable’s budget deficit a priority for the 2021/22 financial year.”