Collusion claims hitting bid to recruit Catholic officers, says Chief Constable

HISTORICAL allegations of security force collusion are hampering police efforts to recruit more Catholic officers in Northern Ireland, the Chief Constable has told MPs.

Simon Byrne said the falling number of Catholic recruits was one of the PSNI’s “top worries” as he expressed concern about sliding down a “slippery slope” after efforts to make the service more representative.

Giving evidence to a Westminster committee yesterday, Mr Byrne highlighted legacy claims about police colluding with paramilitaries during the Troubles as one of the obstacles the PSNI had to overcome if it wanted to boost applications from the nationalist community.

He said the problem demonstrated the need to remove legacy investigations from the PSNI’s remit so it could focus on policing the present.

Mr Byrne said the threat posed by dissident republicans was also discouraging young Catholics from joining up, as it could force them to cut ties with friends and family and leave the neighbourhoods where they grew up.

The Chief Constable said he had met influential people within Catholic communities, including Church figures, to encourage them to advocate policing as a career choice.

“When I speak to people in communities but listen as well, there are some impediments which seem to be difficult for us,” he said.

“So the whole issue of legacy is one that will be cited as a reason for not joining the PSNI because of all those perceptions around collusion and ‘what is the organisation I’m joining?’

“Now, whether you accept that (collusion allegations) or not is a separate question. More than once we have asked that legacy is taken off the PSNI — it’s a barrier to recruitment from the Catholic community.”

On the dissident republican threat, Mr Byrne told MPs: “That makes it very difficult, particularly for colleagues from the Catholic community, to join because they have to have conversations about not telling their family per se sometimes, or moving away from friends, family and all sorts of networks, so it can isolate them.

“So we need to redouble our efforts and I think it’s only eventually when we get critical mass that we’ll achieve that.”

Mr Byrne, who was giving evidence on organised crime, said a return of the 50/50 recruitment policy which ran from 2001 to 2011 was not something he was considering, but he would not rule it out in the future.

“It would be foolish to discount entirely something like that returning,” he said.