There is a real danger of a policing crisis in Northern Ireland unless theBritish government acts, maintains Quentin Davies
It is almost exactly three years since the publication of the Patten Report and policing in Northern Ireland is in crisis.
Police numbers have been allowed to fall below the levels that Patten said would be appropriate for a Northern Ireland in which paramilitary violence was a thing of the past. Regrettably we are a long way from that scenario.
Night after night in parts of Belfast the police struggle to keep the lid on street violence that is clearly being orchestrated by the main republican and so-called loyalist paramilitary groups - including the UVF, the UDA and the IRA.
Morale among officers, who have had to endure many painful changes in the past three years, is now at rock bottom. It is particularly alarming that nearly one in 10 police officers is off work sick at any time.
Many working-class estates in Northern Ireland - containing the most vulnerable members of society - are in the grip of paramilitaries like never before. Rather than getting on top of gangsterism, racketeering and intimidation, these aspects of the Mafia society are becoming more and more entrenched.
This should be as unacceptable in Northern Ireland as it is anywhere in the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin Ministers in the Executive deplorably refuse to support the police and seek to exploit the policing issue in their attempts to break the back of the SDLP.
At the same time the axe continues to hang over the full-time reserve, whose officers carry out basically the same front-line duties as their regular colleagues and without whom any semblance of effective policing would collapse.
It is little wonder that the then acting Chief Constable, Mr Colin Cramphorn, said a fortnight ago that the police are stretched to the limit.
Nor is it any surprise that Mr Hugh Orde, in his first comments on taking up the post of Chief Constable this week, said that among his most pressing concerns were resources and morale.
Moreover, the crisis in policing is now one of the key factors undermining confidence, across the community, in the Belfast Agreement and the political process in Northern Ireland.
None of this reflects on the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), whose members carry out their duties as bravely and professionally as their gallant predecessors in the RUC.
Responsibility for this state of affairs rests four-square with the British government. It is the government that consistently ignored our warnings about security-sensitive Patten recommendations being implemented before there was a lasting peace and the decommissioning of illegal weapons had been completed.
It is the government that has allowed dramatic cuts in police numbers to take place before it was remotely prudent to do so.
And it is the government that, instead of getting a grip on the situation, is now offering a further series of concessions designed to placate those who continue to refuse to fulfil their obligations under the Belfast Agreement.
It is time the government showed real leadership on this key issue. The Secretary of State, Dr John Reid, needs to reassure the community on four points.
First, he should state now that he will not allow any further reductions in police numbers and that in the present and foreseeable future the PSNI full-time reserve will be maintained, as is clearly the wish of the new Chief Constable.
Second, he should make clear that there will be no downgrading of the Special Branch or changes that could undermine its effectiveness in the continuing fight against terrorism.
Third, he should abandon plans to allow convicted terrorists to serve as independent members of district policing partnerships.
Fourth, he should give a clear commitment that there is no tolerable level of paramilitary activity, and that the Chief Constable has his full backing in tackling paramilitarism, wherever it occurs, with the full force of the law.
The transition from the RUC to the PSNI was supposed to represent a new beginning for policing in Northern Ireland. There have been some welcome developments - in particular the acceptance of the police by the SDLP and the number of Catholic recruits applying to join the new force. Yet we cannot ignore the problems.
Throughout the debates over Patten, Conservatives consistently said our chief concern was that, at the end of the process of reform, Northern Ireland would be left with an effective police service. As things stand, there is a real danger of the law-and-order situation running out of control.
That is why urgent action is needed from the government to tackle the policing crisis facing Northern Ireland.
Quentin Davies MP is Conservative shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.