Republican News · Thursday 4 July 2002

Policing Review? Never mind the quality. Feel the width!

BY GERRY KELLY
SINN FÉIN SPOKESPERSON ON POLICING

The British government's new policing 'review' is a dog's dinner. - Gerry Kelly

Reduced to its essence, the Good Friday Agreement requires a 'new beginning' to policing in a police service which is acceptable to the whole community. The criteria for acceptability are a police service which is:

- accountable,

- free from partisan political control,

- representative of the community it polices.

The Patten recommendations were intended to give effect to this. They have not been implemented in full. Sinn Féin, the two governments and the SDLP agree that this is the case.

The 'new beginning' to policing required by the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) is some way off. That much is evident in each of the hundred stitches in the head wounds of Patrick Devenney, the Chair of Belfast Sinn Féin, inflicted by the PSNI. It is evident too in the ability of Special Branch to hide information from the Ombudsman without sanction of any sort and in a force which remains overwhelmingly Protestant, wholly unionist and with no clear plan to make it representative of the community as a whole. And it follows through into the partisan political control of the PSNI which rests, unquestionably, with the British Secretary of State, John Reid.

A Dog's Dinner

The proposals by the two governments at Weston Park last year included a review of the British government's policing arrangements. Some aspects of the outcome of the review were determined in advance. This included a commitment to legislative amendments to their 'Police Act'. This is the law which gutted the Patten recommendations and ignored the requirements of the

GFA on policing. So far so good. But obviously, it is the substance of the amendments and the timetable to give effect to them which is important. The British government spelt out the amendments they intend making. There are 14 in all. They can be found in the British government's 'Implementation Plan', which they published last August. Some of these are okay in that they incrementally nudge the seriously flawed legislation in the direction of Patten. Others however are not okay. They are bad. One has the effect of entrenching the impunity with which Special Branch and Special Branch agents, under the direction of British Intelligence (MI5) have acted for decades.

Overall, these 14 proposed amendments fall far short of the GFA's requirements for policing. This is why Sinn Féin refused to nominate to the Policing Board last September. What is required by the Agreement is not being delivered. And if the outcome of the 'review' does not go significantly further than the 14 points already in the public domain the gap between the British proposals and the requirements of the GFA will not be bridged.

The 'review' announced by the British government after Weston Park was to be conducted by Tom Constantine, the Oversight Commissioner. This has been changed. Instead the British Secretary of State, John Reid, recently informed party leaders that:

• Tom Constantine will review the implementation of the British government's Police Act as opposed to the implementation of the Patten recommendations. This latter is what the Patten Commission required;
• Dan Compton of "Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabularies", as part of his routine annual inspection, will examine "effectiveness, security and policing with the community";
• The British 'Security Minister' Jane Kennedy will be the main point of contact where "detailed administrative or legislative issues arise". Ms Kennedy has asked for submissions from the parties before the end of September. The 'review' is to be completed by October.
• The British government will introduce legislation to amend or clarify certain provisions as set out in their proposals after Weston Park "to reflect more fully the Patten recommendations". There is no intention to implement Patten in full. As stated earlier the Weston Park proposals include an amendment to copperfasten the traditional impunity with which Special Branch agents and their handlers have acted and so defy all accountability.

When thinking of how to characterise the new "review", described above, a canine's main meal springs to mind. It gives no sense of the joined up process people normally understand a review to entail. It is a right dog's dinner!.

Same Old Story

Events on the ground demonstrate that we still face unacceptable policing.

Since the Policing Board was formed a few months ago, there have been hundreds of bomb attacks against nationalist homes with no effective counter by the PSNI. Instead, Special Branch agents in the UDA continue to organise and direct anti-Agreement loyalism. The Special Branch, with traditional impunity, subverted the Ombudsman's attempts to hold them accountable over their role in the Omagh bomb tragedy. And, in the wake of this the Policing Board, quite disgracefully, made the Ombudsman's Office the subject of scrutiny while Special Branch did not get as much as a slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, the securocrats organise house-raids and arrests to distract attention from their raid on Castlereagh, and the Board cannot hold them to book while the Short Strand, after loyalists attacked the area, was raided by the PSNI firing plastic bullets, batoning residents and wrecking homes. And, as if to dramatise the policing problem, in one violent action, they struck down Paud Devenny, chairperson of Belfast Sinn Féin, while he was trying to calm the situation. How different was the violent attack by the PSNI on Paud Devenney, near his Belfast home, to the violent attack by the RUC on Sam Devenney in his Derry home in 1969?

None of this is acceptable to Sinn Féin. That is why we will not support current policing arrangements or nominate to the Policing Board while they obtain.

The Future

A 'new beginning' to policing is not optional. It is not simply a requirement of the GFA! It is a must! There is no alternative. The past 80 years demonstrate that without it there will be no peace or stability. The past 80 days of raids, cracked heads, plastic bullets and Special Branch impunity show what has to be done. British government success in breaking the national and democratic consensus around that absolute requirement has delayed its achievement. It must be rebuilt. Otherwise Mr. Blair will never grasp this nettle and we will all be condemned to more of the same unacceptable policing.