PFNI: ‘officers will feel abandoned by this PfG’

It is beyond disappointing that the Programme for Government (PfG) fails to make cast-iron promises on police numbers and general funding, according to the Police Federation for Northern Ireland.

The delayed PfG makes a mere vague reference to policing but studiously avoids signing up to firm commitments.

PFNI Chair Liam Kelly said: “This Programme for Government is devoid of the things policing so desperately requires.

“It is beyond disappointing that there is no promise on funding to reverse ten years of decline. There is nothing on the Recovery Plan to push officer numbers up to 7,000 by 2028 or reach the figure of 7,500 as envisaged under Patten. And there’s no acknowledgement by our political leadership that services will continue to be cut back.

“This is dismaying. It is a standstill agenda. All we have here an intention to ‘develop a robust business case that will seek to stabilise, and begin to grow, police officer numbers.’ There is nothing to say what that actually means or a fixed timeline.

“Without hard and fast commitments, all this PfG does is treat policing as low hanging fruit. Ministers clearly believe that doing nothing to deal with the crisis in policing will not incur the wrath of the wider community. It shows indifference to the officers I represent who will have every justification for feeling abandoned and the wider community feeling ignored.

“There are woolly sentiments but no cast-iron promises. This PfG is supposed to set out priorities but all it actually does is leave policing at the back of the queue to struggle on with a Service that is on its knees.”