‘At least another decade of hard work’ needed to make PSNI fully representative
400 new recruits sought
Last updated 2nd Nov 2021
PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton says it could take another 10 years for the service to become a definitive representation of Northern Ireland
He was speaking at the launch of a new recruitment campaign in the same week it marked 20 years in operation.
While representation from the Catholic community has risen significantly in those two decades. However, with 50/50 recruitment – which ensured an equal number of Protestants and Catholics were hired - no longer taking place, the number of recruits from the Catholic community has started to fall.
Mr Hamilton said work was needed to reverse the recent trend.
He said Lord Patten, who proposed the policing reforms that saw the PSNI replace the RUC in 2001, envisaged it taking 10 years for the new service to be reflective of the community.
“We're now 20 years past,” he admitted.
“I do think that we are continuing to normalise our society. I think as we make more progress at every level, then I think it becomes more attractive for people.
“The more we can collectively remove the barriers to this then the better. But I do think we're probably looking at another 10 years of hard work at this at least.''
Mr Hamilton said the police's role in investigating legacy crimes linked to the Troubles was a major factor in dissuading people from the nationalist community from joining the PSNI.
He said the ongoing threat from dissident republicans was another.
The commander said those issues highlighted that reintroducing 50:50 recruitment - a decision that could only be taken by politicians - would not in itself address the declining numbers of Catholic recruits.
“Positive action measures have worked in the past but some of the environmental issues we've talked about, such as issues around legacy issues, around the dissident threat and so forth, are going to take a bigger solution potentially than just taking positive action measures,'' he said.
“We've made a lot of progress in the last two years against the issue of dissident republicanism, trying to make communities safer for everybody.
“So there's a number of things that probably need to happen here to try and make this as accessible a service for people as we want it to be.''
“We've made a lot of progress in the last two years against the issue of dissident republicanism, trying to make communities safer for everybody. "
Mr Hamilton acknowledged that the PSNI also faced a “challenge” in convincing young loyalists that the police offered a good career path.
“The issue of confidence in the loyalist community has been writ large with us for a large part of this year,'' said Mr Hamilton.
“We understand that, we recognise that. So we're not complacent at all about what that means. Our outreach programme for this recruitment campaign includes loyalist areas and we hope it works.''
The recruitment campaign launched on Tuesday is seeking to hire 400 new officers.
Factoring in expected retirements, the drive will see the PSNI's overall officer number rise by about 100 to 7,100 by next March.
The closing date for applications is November 19.
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