Colum Eastwood: PSNI must recruit Catholics and Protestants equally

Frank Wright, the late Queen’s University academic, once wrote that “national conflicts, once fully developed, revolve around issues of law, order and justice.” This perspective informed the SDLP in the Belfast Agreement negotiations.

John Hume, Seamus Mallon and our leadership were determined that issues of law, order and justice were decisively, fundamentally and comprehensively addressed.

Working in particular with the Irish government, mechanisms were developed and pathways were agreed. Human rights and equality commissions were to be established, there was to be a Criminal Justice Review and there was to be an independent commission on policing, subsequently known as “the Patten Commission”.

The standing of the police in the nationalist community is unrecognisable from that of the RUC

It was generally agreed policing would be the most challenging of the disputed issues. The experience of the nationalist community of the RUC had been hostile. The demand for radical change was great.

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In the end, the Patten Commission came up with 175 recommendations. Hume and Mallon took the momentous step of calling on citizens of all backgrounds to join the Police Service of Northern Ireland and nominated SDLP representatives to the Policing Board. The time had come to realise the new beginning to policing and to take responsibility for those issues of law, order and justice to which national conflicts are so often directly tied.

We put in the hard yards, we went to communities across the North, including those working-class areas which had previously been demonised by the RUC, and made the case for why we had to get behind the new policing arrangements. The GAA, the Catholic Church and other faith leaders, the Irish and American governments stood with the SDLP and, more critically, stood with those who joined the police and joined policing partnerships as local representatives. It was a watershed moment.

‘Historic’ actions

Others casually, routinely and self-servingly describe their actions as “historic”. But it was those who joined the PSNI, the civilian and political members of the Policing Board and district partnerships, the community groups which for the first time worked with the PSNI who were the real participants in this truly historic change.

There were a few hostile voices. It took Sinn Féin many years to sign up to the new beginning to policing. But in the North, where others lead, Sinn Féin follows, slowly.

Twenty years later, the standing of the police in the nationalist community is unrecognisable from that of the RUC. One senior Irish diplomat has recently described “policing as the greatest success of the peace process”.

Tragedies have done nothing to advance any cause, those who carried them out speak for no one and their actions have only devastated families

I am part of the first generation of nationalists since partition who support and engage with the police service. I am determined that future generations will continue to have this confidence in our police service.

There have, however, been mistakes along the way. The North is a uniquely challenging environment to police and every year we see incidents where the PSNI get it wrong. While this is not a problem unique to the PSNI, serious policing mistakes in Northern Ireland can have disproportionate impact.

The SDLP has been raising these emerging issues for some time. “Policing with the Community” – which Patten said was the core philosophy of policing – in some places seems more “policing with the gatekeepers”.

Policing legitimacy was damaged by the approach around the funeral of Bobby Storey. This week revelations about treatment of employees in the PSNI and appalling issues of harassment have rightly put a further sharp spotlight on police culture and leadership.

Uncertainty and turbulence

There is, however, much to acknowledge and applaud over the last 20 years. The achievements need to be protected and deepened. Structural and operational challenges should be faced and addressed.

In doing so, by enhancing the rule of law and its institutions, we will be better able to navigate the future and what might prove a coming decade of uncertainty and even turbulence.

In facing all of this, we should also face the issues around PSNI recruitment. Catholics now comprise 32 per cent of the PSNI with that number predicted to fall further in the next decade. The number of Catholics who came through the latest recruitment process was 24 per cent.

New NI census figures early next year will put all of this in context. No one has convinced me that there is any range of measures that can address the under-representation of the Catholic community more than 50:50 recruitment.

The British government’s decision to abandon the policy of 50:50 recruitment was a mistake. The SDLP warned against doing so. I believe that we should return to it and invite others to participate in a considered conversation on doing so. And a big part of any conversation is also how to attract people for example from loyalist communities and from places of disadvantage.

Since the formation of the PSNI, two officers, Ronan Kerr and Stephen Carroll, have lost their lives, while Peadar Heffron was badly injured in another attack. These tragedies have done nothing to advance any cause, those who carried them out speak for no one and their actions have only devastated families across the North.

Each of these officers decided to serve, to protect their community, to defend the rule of law, to be part of the new beginning to policing. Their sacrifice and the work of all the partners in the new beginning have given this generation a platform to create a police service that is truly representative of a shared society it works to protect.

Colum Eastwood is leader of the SDLP