BACKGROUND:PSNI's recruitment policy has succeeded in attracting Catholics
CATHOLIC participation in policing has been steadily increasing since the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) was formed out of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in November 2001. During the worst of the Troubles, there were 13,000 – 14,000 police officers in the RUC and more than 90 per cent of these were Protestants.
Following the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998 the Patten commission on policing, which recommended the establishment of the new police service, made Catholic membership a key principle.
Until the end of March, recruits were chosen under the 50:50 rule, which held that half of all new applicants had to come from the Catholic community with the remainder describing themselves as Protestant or “other”.
Statistics provided by the policing board yesterday show how successful that policy has been. In late 2001, just 8.28 per cent of new recruits were from the Catholic community. However, this has grown steadily to the point where just under 30 per cent of all 7,200 PSNI officers are Catholics.
Statistics also show that the percentage of applications from Catholics to join the PSNI rose over the first decade of the service, though not as steadily as the statistics relating to actual membership.
The figures show that recent recruitment drives recorded a slight dip in applications from Catholics – down from a high of 44.3 per cent to the current 37.4 per cent. However, the North’s Minister for Justice, David Ford, said yesterday that attacks on Catholic police officers, including the killing of Stephen Carroll and the serious wounding of Irish language specialist and PSNI Gaelic footballer Peadar Heffron have not deterred Catholics from a policing career.
Catholic support for the police is also rising as policing board research has shown. The minute’s silence before Sunday’s Tyrone-Kildare football match in Dungannon, Co Tyrone in the wake of the latest murder in Omagh is testimony to that.
The recruitment policy has drawn criticism from unionist politicians, who have welcomed its ending. However, SDLP and Sinn Féin representatives continue to argue that the policy should remain in place until the PSNI reflects more closely the community it serves.
Statistics from the census, carried out on March 27th last, are expected to show that the Catholic percentage of the North’s population continues to rise and is now somewhere in the mid-40s.
The highest ranking Catholic to serve in the PSNI to date was Peter Sheridan, now chief executive of Co-Operation Ireland, who attained the rank of assistant chief constable.
On the relative success of the strategy of attracting Catholics to policing, he said yesterday: “We persuaded them on the basis that we were entering a new era, that it was a more peaceful society and that there was more normalised policing.” However, he added: “We now have to ensure that those young officers who have joined feel that support from the community. They should not feel isolated in their community, they should not be alienated – but actually encouraged.”
Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady also called for Catholics to stand by the police service.
Echoing the call made by Ronan Kerr’s mother, Nuala, that her son’s death will not be in vain, he said: “Young Catholics and others from right across the community should actively support the PSNI and join it. This society needs an efficient and impartial police force. But I would also appeal to the mothers and fathers of those young people who are being actively recruited into violent republican groups – please, ask your children to reject all attempts to draw them into the evil futility and destruction of paramilitary violence.”
Abhorrence at dissident violence was important, Dr Brady said, particularly in support of Catholics in the PSNI “who are taking risks for the greater good of society as a whole”.