More than 30 police officers have been forced out of their homes in the last 18 months over fears of dissident republican murder bids, their representative body has claimed.
In the same period the 32 officers and their families have moved, there have been more than 200 gun and bomb attacks in Northern Ireland, many of them against policemen and women, the Police Federation’s annual conference in Belfast heard.
Federation chairman Terry Spence said the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) needed 1,000 more officers to help wage the battle against the violent extremists, who he said now numbered around 650.
He urged Stormont leaders to make the fight against dissident republicans, not economic recovery, the top priority of government.
“It is not the economy that needs put at the heart of the programme for government: it is the defeat and elimination of the cancer of terrorism,” he said.
“When terrorism is ended the economy will be reinvigorated, the paramilitary stranglehold on communities will be broken, civic life will recover and maybe then, we will have community policing for real.”
Commenting on the prominent role of the UVF in last week’s riot in east Belfast Mr Spence also called for tough action against the loyalist paramilitaries.
“Now we also need to make headway against the unrepentant loyalists who think that dissident activity is their local opportunity for more criminality,” he said.
“Last week demonstrated that the loyalist paramilitaries are intent on making life as difficult as they can for their local communities and for the police service. UVF attacks on their nationalist neighbours resulted in Dissident and UVF gunmen making murderous attacks on police officers and civilians.
“If being a proscribed organisation is to mean anything then action must be taken. The behaviour of the UVF demands that active members released under the Belfast Agreement on licence should be recalled to prison by the NI Secretary.
“We cannot tolerate paramilitary groups creating public havoc because they think they have no voice in how Northern Ireland is governed. They have exactly the same access to the ballot box and opportunity to stand for election as the rest of us.”
PA