A policing service for a new future
What sort of police service is needed to replace the RUC? We
carry a summary of Sinn Féin's Submission to the Commission on
Policing
The participants in the Good Friday Agreement believe that it
represents ``a unique opportunity to bring about a new political
dispensation which will recognise the full and equal legitimacy
and worth of the identities, sense of allegiance and ethos of all
sections of the community in Northern Ireland.''
One litmus test which will determine the credibility of that
belief is policing. In order to ensure the success of the
Agreement, it is therefore crucial that the new police service
affords full and equal legitimacy to all sections of the Irish
people.
Those who signed the Agreement also believe it essential that the
new police service be: ``professional, effective and efficient,
fair and impartial, free from partisan political control;
accountable, both under the law for its actions and to the
community it serves; representative of the society it polices,
and operates within a coherent and co-operative criminal justice
system, which conforms with human rights norms''.
With regard to all of these criteria the RUC and the legal system
in the North have patently failed. The RUC, throughout its
violent history has been seen and has seen itself as the armed
guardians of the Union; and for most of that time the
paramilitary wing of the Unionist government and party.
The RUC has routinely violated, often on a massive scale, the
rights of nationalists. It has never been held to effective
account for these actions either by the law or any democratic
mechanism. It has always been and remains completely
unrepresentative of the community as a whole and both it, and the
criminal justice system within which it operates, have been found
to have violated the most basic international human rights
standards.
| |
The IPC found that Ryanair's claim to pay their baggage handlers
better wages than other airlines did not hold true.
|
The RUC have been responsible for at least fifty deaths and yet
no RUC Officer has been convicted of murder.
Sinn Féin believes that the Commission should access the full
Stalker-Sampson report in order to draw lessons for future
policing. The Commission should meet with John Stalker and Colin
Sampson and relatives of the victims of this shoot-to-kill
policy. The Stalker-Sampson report should be published as part of
the Commission's reporting process. The use of Public Interest
Immunity Certificates should cease.
It is widely believed in the nationalist community that RUC
members have been actively involved in the targeting of members
of their community subsequently killed by loyalists. This belief
was supported by the Stevens Inquiry. There have been no
prosecutions of RUC officers arising from the Stevens Inquiry
even though the report identified the RUC as the original source
of sensitive security documents which were passed to loyalists
and four members of the crown forces involved in sectarian
killings.
The Commission should obtain copies of the full Stevens report
and take evidence from Mr Stevens in order to learn lessons from
his investigation and apply them in plans for new policing
structures. The Stevens report should be published as part of the
Commission's reporting process. The Commission should also meet
with the relatives of victims of collusion, and with family
solicitors.
Since the early 1970s the RUC and their counterparts in the
British Army have been routinely involved in the torture and
ill-treatment of nationalists. Throughout the years this type of
treatment has continued leading to condemnation by many
international human rights groups and also by British government
inquiries. Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been paid out in
damages for ill-treatment in the holding centres.
However, no member of the RUC has ever been successfully
prosecuted, and to our knowledge no member has even been
disciplined.
Sinn Féin calls on the Commission to seek assistance from
relevant international human rights bodies for its conclusions on
police powers, and to take evidence from individuals to whom
damages have been awarded.
A report published in April 1998 by the United Nations Special
Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers concluded
that the RUC had engaged in a pattern of intimidation, harassment
and hindrance of defence lawyers.
Sinn Féin believes that the Commission should discuss this issue
with the UN Special Rapporteur in order to ensure best
international practice in relation to the approach by the new
policing structures to defence lawyers. The Commission should
also call for the establishment of an international independent
inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane and the Brian Nelson
affair. The Commission should meet with the family and colleagues
of Pat Finucane and other lawyers who have had similar
experiences of intimidation.
There are currently 13,000 members of the RUC. International
experience indicates that in a stable society with a population
of 1.5 million around 3000 police officers are required
| |
The RUC have used emergency powers since the foundation of the
northern state to harass and intimidate the nationalist community
and particularly nationalist youth. Despite cessations and
negotiations and the Good Friday Agreement, this approach to
policing continues.
The Commission should call for the removal of all emergency
legislation so that the new policing service can operate within a
legislative framework appropriate to a body which is acceptable
to all, rather than rely on the old coercive and failed
strategies of the RUC. The Commission should call for the removal
of emergency legislation in relation to the powers of the new
policing services.
Seventeen people have been killed as a result of being shot by
rubber or plastic bullets. Seven of those killed have been
children. Thousands more have been injured. No RUC member or
soldier has been convicted of any offence arising from these
deaths and injuries despite significant compensation having been
paid to victims.
The Commission should call for their withdrawal from use by the
new policing service in public order situations. The Commission
should meet at an early date with the United Campaign Against
Plastic Bullets and other representatives of the victims of
rubber and plastic bullets.
Accountability, structure and organisation
Technical and managerial approaches to policing only have their
place when there is a measure of consensus in the debate about
the core issues of policy, law and justice.
Accordingly, we seek to address the macro issues with which the
Commission must grapple in order to create meaningful
transitional arrangements pending the establishment of
all-Ireland police structures. This latter objective is one which
we wish to see projected in the Commission's final report.
Accountability involves four inter-related questions:
Operational independence
The Good Friday Agreement correctly calls for the assurance that
policing would be `free from partisan political control'.
Freedom from partisan political control should not mean that a
Chief Constable does not have to answer for the policing
decisions she/he makes. The Commission will therefore have to
ensure that its proposals define clearly what operational
independence means and the limits which must be placed on the
Chief Constable of any new police service.
Accountability to the community
The appointment of senior officers and the allocation of budgets
should be in the hands of a body which has widespread and
broadly-based political support. This body should also be given
powers to call those senior officers regularly to account.
We call for the establishment of a Commission, made up of Irish
and British government representatives, the European Commission
and legal experts such as lawyers, magistrates, criminologists
and human rights experts and in the context of current political
developments, political representatives of unionism, nationalism,
republicanism and ethnic minorities might be involved on an equal
basis. Representation on the body should ensure proper gender
balance.
What is crucial is that the powers of a such a civilian oversight
body be well-defined and strong enough to insist on regular
reporting from the chief constable along with an obligation on
the latter to defer to the commission in the case of differences
of opinion.
We also feel that local advisory committees should replace the
current system of Community Police Liaison Committees.
Policing should be carried out by the new police service and not
by military forces. Sinn Féin wishes to see a speedy
demilitarisation of policing, not only through the establishment
of an unarmed police service, but through the withdrawal of
British troops, including their locally based regiments.
Accountability to the law
One of the duties of the civilian oversight body must therefore
be to establish a review of police law in association with the
two governments to ensure that police powers throughout the
island are consistent with international rights norms and become
the law to which police officers would be accountable.
A further measure which would reassure those alienated from the
system in the past would be the incorporation of international
human rights law into this jurisdiction
Complaints mechanisms
New complaints mechanisms must be independent from the police
themselves and from any civilian oversight body. They must be
staffed by civilians though police advisors from the new policing
service may be usefully considered.
We will measure new complaints mechanisms against the following
necessary components:
The body must have a power to carry out independent
investigations. This investigatory function must be completely
separated from policing structures;
The body must have the power to initiate investigations
irrespective of whether senior police officers wish it, and,
The establishing legislation must make the balance of probability
the test for action to be taken.
Structure
Sinn Féin supports the creation of a new all-Ireland police
service that respects the rights of all, is democratically
accountable and representative of the people it seeks to serve.
In the interim, however, there are a number of steps which must
be taken to ensure that policing in the transitional period sees
a marked improvement on the past.
Structures must be devised which allow for the closest possible
relationship between the police and the community.
Among the options Sinn Féin promoted in 1996 was a proposal to
devolve police structures along the lines of the twenty six
district council areas. Such devolution could be either on
district council or health or education board boundaries.
We are also in favour of a tiered approach to the new police
service. Finally, it is Sinn Féin's view that all specialist
counter-insurgency and other more secretive organisations must be
disbanded pending the creation of the new police service.
The existence of repressive legislation North and South mitigates
against the development of an effective police service in both
jurisdictions.
When repressive legislation which operates both North and South
is repealed we believe that co-operation between the Gardaí and
police services in the six counties should be instituted at all
levels and in training and operational matters. Consideration
should also be given to an equalisation of names and symbols.
Following on from closer co-operation and harmonisation north and
south, it is Sinn Féin's view that this will be the most
cost-effective and efficient source of assistance for exceptional
policing demands, an issue which the Commission is especially
tasked to consider.
Community policing
One of the most crucial steps towards proper policing will be the
establishment of community-based structures which can effectively
deal with local issues traditionally seen as being police matters
but which, in the northern context the RUC have been both unable
and unwilling to deal with.
We see a positive role for local systems of restorative community
justice which involve the establishment of broadly representative
community management committees who will then set up local
investigation, mediation and adjudication in disputed cases.
Local structures should not be seen as an alternative to formal
policing. In our view restorative justice, which seeks to
reconcile the victim, the offender and his or her community, is
an approach that can build trust and empower individual
communities affected.
We seek to standardise and regulate community structures in order
that local anti-social behaviour and petty criminality can be
dealt with at a local level in a way which meets victims' needs
and deals with unacceptable behaviour so that the offender can be
re-integrated into the community without the need for involvement
of formal police and court mechanisms or physical punishment.
Sinn Féin would like the Commission to consider how these local
structures can complement the new policing structures overall.
Composition, culture, recruitment and training
Policing will only be effective when a police service enjoys the
support of the community it serves. If a police service is to
enjoy that support it must reflect in its composition its
constituent society.
There are currently 13,000 members of the RUC. International
experience indicates that in a stable society with a population
of 1.5 million around 3000 police officers are required.
Therefore it is envisaged that a transitional police service in
the North of
Ireland would be made up of 1350 (45%) Catholic/Nationalist, 1500
(50%) should be women, 54 (1.8%) should be from ethnic minority
communities and 450 (15%) should be gay/lesbian.
The reduction in size of the new police service will be a crucial
part of the Commission's proposals. Redundancies must be carried
out within an agreed period and completed within two years.
Redundancy packages including opportunities for retraining should
be offered. Savings from ``security'' budgets can be used to
finance this process.
The question we face in this period of transition is how to
create a police service, which is acceptable to everyone living
in the North of Ireland. The predominantly British and Unionist
ethos of the RUC creates an alien and hostile culture.
The absence of any recognition of Irish culture - including the
language - within the ethos of the RUC further emphasises its
failure to represent the nationalist community living in the
North of Ireland. None of the trappings of Unionism or the
Protestant police force for a Protestant people can be carried
into a new police service. This includes the name.
The British ethos of all the institutions of the state must
change to reflect the Irish identity of nearly half of the
population in keeping with the Good Friday Agreement.
Members of the new police service should not be members of the
loyal orders, or any other oath bound secret organisations.
A new transitional police service for the North of Ireland must
be free from any form of internal discrimination or harassment
and must actively promote equality issues. A women-friendly
environment free from sexual discrimination and harassment must
be created. The provision of appropriate child-care and equality
of opportunity in respect of job allocation and promotion must be
part of the fabric of a new police service.
A new recruitment process alone will not create a representative
police service. It must also sit alongside extensive reform of
other aspects of the administration of justice. All necessary
legislation and measures must be put in place effectively to
create a representative, accountable police service within the
given time frame.
Independent monitoring mechanisms in respect of membership and
the recruitment process must be established and operated from the
outset.
Sinn Féin calls on the Commission to recommend that all current
recruitment should cease immediately. Recruitment should only
resume when criteria, target setting and a new independent
recruitment process have been agreed.
There can be no automatic right for former members of the RUC to
gain admission to the new service. A screening process should be
developed by a Commission. This process should identify and
exclude human rights violators from consideration as applicants
to a new police service.
The adoption of strategies calculated to integrate ex-combatants
from opposing sides into new security forces and policing
services has been a significant feature of many conflict
resolution situations.
While Sinn Féin is not calling for the formal incorporation of
ex-combatant organisations into new policing structures, it
nevertheless wishes to ensure that no inappropriate obstacles are
put in the way of involvement by ex-combatants in the new
service.
Alongside recruitment, training goes to the core of the creation
of an acceptable, representative police service. As with
recruitment current training must cease immediately. To continue
to engage in such training programmes is a misuse of funds.
A move away from militaristic style training is essential. Human
and civil rights training should be run through all training and
should demonstrate the relationship between working practices and
human rights.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)