The number of Catholic officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is slowly falling to 25 per cent. A key element of the Patten Commission’s bid to restart policing and the broader peace process is fragmenting.
Creating a policing service that reflects the society it serves is widely seen as beneficial to fair and effective policing. While reflection goes beyond religion, it was this imbalance that the Patten report identified as the most glaring problem. This imbalance was considered so severe that the government deviated from fair employment legislation to introduce the controversial 50-50 hiring policy, which applied for 10 years from 2001.
During 50-50, the number of Catholics in the PSNI rose from 8 to 29 percent, peaking shortly thereafter. However, that progress is now being reversed. To put it plainly: between 2001 and 2011 every second new hire was a Catholic, and in recent years four out of five new hires have been Protestants.
When the PSNI turned 20 last month, some politicians called for the reinstatement of 50-50, but that would be a temporary solution to deeper problems. Catholics are generally more reluctant to choose the police profession than Protestants, and unless the underlying reasons for doing so are addressed, exceptions to fair labor laws are a divisive factor.
During the 50-50 recruitment, many in the public leadership congratulated themselves on the rapidly increasing number of Catholics in the PSNI, but actual applications from Catholics always lagged behind those from Protestants. This was the time of soul searching, not self-adulation; the roof was not repaired when the sun was shining. In fact, a major disadvantage of 50-50 is that it takes focus away from the problem and the need for leaders to solve it.
Application rates from Catholics peaked in 2007 at a healthy 44 percent while 50-50 were mid-cycle; They have since declined to just 30 percent in 2021. The end of 50-50 didn’t cause Catholic application rates to drop, it just stopped artificially fixing them. Catholics are not only less likely to apply to the police force, they are also more likely to decline during the process. This meant that only 24 percent of those appointed in 2021 identified as Catholic; This has been as low as 19 percent in recent years.
The problem is blatant. In percentage terms, almost as many Catholics applied to join the RUC after the IRA ceasefire of 1994 as are now joining the PSNI. This is remarkable in view of the profound changes in policing, politics and the security situation. The truth is that the lingering terrorist threat and a lack of political leadership from Sinn Féin are largely responsible for keeping the police force an unappealing career choice for too many Catholics.
The impact of the terrorist threat on Catholic police officer recruitment in Northern Ireland is clear. Catholic applications to the RUC tripled after the IRA’s 1994 ceasefire and collapsed after it was broken. Catholic applications to the PSNI first began to decline after 2007 — That year dissidents shot and killed a Catholic officer as he was taking his child to school in Derry. Dissident groups began to seriously target off-duty Catholic officers from this point forward, assassinating Ronan Kerr and seriously injuring Peadar Heffron. These were personal attacks aimed at officials of nationalist communities and intended to discourage Catholics from joining the PSNI.
The impact of the terrorist threat posed by dissidents may be greater for officials in nationalist communities. Many Catholic police officers never return to their neighborhoods after joining the PSNI.
I’ve seen the personal sacrifice firsthand; Working with colleagues to get off-duty officers safely in and out of guard houses and family funerals. It is a reality check for the residual problems of this place that such steps are required for a plainclothes police officer to say goodbye to a deceased family member.
When men and women stand up courageously for service to society, they deserve full political support. That support is sorely missed because people cope with adversity exponentially better when encouraged. As law enforcement continues to crack down on dissident groups, it is high time mainstream Republican leaders took a stand, wholeheartedly encouraging Catholics to join the police, and giving the PSNI their full support.
Fifteen years after Sinn Féin reportedly began supporting the police, they failed to attend a PSNI ceremony in which they passed out. What a statement for new and potential nationalist recruits.
It wasn’t until last year that Sinn Féin participated in its first recruiting campaign; This was agreed at the last minute and arrived just as the event was winding down. Sinn Féin continues to politicize policing, falsely attributing malicious sectarian motives to police actions it disagrees with, and it continues to praise those who have killed police officers in the past. These are not signals to their base that joining the ranks of law and order is a noble calling.
Recently, a Sinn Féin MLA provided a £50,000 bond to secure the bail of a New IRA suspect accused of plotting to kill police officers. The suspect comes from a department in Derry from which a single application to join the PSNI has never been received. The actions of this MLA are not going to change that any time soon. Frankly, it’s hard to imagine Sinn Féin MLA on bail for an alleged pedophile or drug dealer.
Sinn Féin’s signing up for policing did not move Catholic recruitment, since genuine support for the police involves both advocacy and accountability. Northern Ireland’s largest nationalist party shows neither leadership nor sincerity in trying to recruit Catholics into the police force. As long as this is not the case, there is little legitimacy to criticize the PSNI’s staffing imbalance and it remains part of the problem rather than the solution.
Jon Burrows is the former head of the PSNI’s Disciplinary Division
https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/sinn-fein-dont-support-the-psni-and-thats-why-catholics-arent-joining-41416150.html Sinn Féin doesn’t support the PSNI – and that’s why Catholics don’t join
