Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy has led a delegation of community representatives and business people in a meeting with senior PSNI officers in Crossmaglen, south Armagh.
The meeting, held at Crossmaglen Community Centre yesterday, is a continuation of the groundbreaking engagement between Sinn Féin in south Armagh and the PSNI begun earlier in the summer, with the Newry and Armagh MP Mr Murphy leading the project.
The initial engagement was prompted by demands in Crossmaglen for new methods of dealing with anti-social activity. The fact that these meetings should take place in a republican heartland also marks another milestone in the political process.
Mr Murphy said: "The community, having been confronted with serious incidents of anti-social violence and criminality, firmly believes that the PSNI response to tackling what is happening has, at best, been totally inadequate.
"At their request I agreed to facilitate a critical engagement between community representatives and the PSNI so that the community can put their views to them very strongly, and also hear from them as to how they intend to effectively tackle the issues involved.
"Sinn Féin's focus in all of our engagements with the PSNI . . . will be to ensure that it carries out its duties and responsibilities in a fair and impartial way, as an effective civic police service which is democratically accountable to the public."
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