So the PSNI’s in crisis? What happened?
Quite a lot. It’s fair to say it’s been a long summer for the North’s police service, and things are showing no sign of calming down any time soon.
In August there was the first – and most serious – of a series of data breaches, in which the personal and employment data of every police officer and civilian member of staff was published online and subsequently accessed by dissident republicans.
The announcement of an independently led review bought time, but no sooner had this been kicked into the long grass than the PSNI was engulfed in another controversy, this time over disciplinary action taken against two probationary officers following an incident on Belfast’s Ormeau Road in 2021.
It happened on the anniversary of the loyalist gun attack on Sean Graham’s bookmakers on Belfast’s Ormeau Road in 1992, in which five people were killed; a survivor of the attack was arrested and handcuffed by police during a memorial event over suspicions the numbers attending breached the Covid-19 regulations then in place.
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Last week, a High Court quashed the decision to suspend one officer and reposition another; even more controversial, in his ruling Mr Justice Scoffield said the move was motivated by the real or perceived threat that Sinn Féin would withdraw its support for policing in Northern Ireland – something the party firmly rejected.
Not for the first time, there were calls for the Chief Constable, Simon Byrne, to resign; he had previously refused to go, saying it was better to stay put and try to solve problems, but he quit on Monday after his position had become untenable.
What was the final straw?
Ultimately it was the handling of the crisis, rather than the crisis itself. Hours into a lengthy meeting of the scrutiny body the policing board, he revealed he was considering an appeal to the court judgment.
This prompted an angry response from the Police Federation for Northern Ireland – the body which represents rank and file police officers – with its chairman, Liam Kelly, saying the chief constable would be “appealing against his own actions against his own officers ... this has infuriated and antagonised the rank and file further.”
Essentially he was saying that, with morale and confidence within the PSNI already damaged by previous crises – not least the recent data leaks – for the ordinary police officer this was yet another example of junior ranks being thrown under the bus in order to protect senior management.
Byrne had lost the dressingroom; with a potentially damaging appearance in front of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee scheduled for Tuesday, and the prospect of multiple no-confidence votes from the Police Federation and others looming later in the week, he had no choice but to go.
So that’s it sorted?
Not quite. Aside from the need to find a new chief constable, the controversy rumbles on.
On Wednesday, the Police Federation unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton – acting head of the organisation until Byrne’s replacement is appointed – leaving his position far from secure. After another daylong meeting of the policing board on Thursday, there was some movement; it has agreed to prioritise the recruitment of a new Chief Constable, aiming to have it complete by early November – and the Department of Justice has also commissioned a review into how the board – which has come in for its own criticism – discharges its legislative duties.
Beyond this, wider problems – of morale, of budget, of the recruitment and retention of Catholic officers, remain to be resolved. This crisis is not over yet.
