Swann Raises Immense Pressures Facing PSNI

Speaking at a Westminster Hall debate on Police Funding, South Antrim MP Robin Swann highlighted that the PSNI, with only 6,300 officers, are operating at an unsustainable level. The Patten report envisioned 7,500 police officers, and the current Chief Constable has said it would take a force of 8,500 to do the job he wants them to do. With leave, sickness and other absences, the deployable force of the PSNI is closer to about 4,500.

Following the recent surge of violent attacks on women across Northern Ireland, Mr Swann said in the debate:

“In this day and age in any part of this United Kingdom, it is a shame and a disgrace that we are now in a situation where women feel unsafe walking the streets. This should be a first-world country, with a first-world police service looking after the people, who deserve and expect that.”

Mr Swann further pressed the immense pressure facing our Police Service, and raised the recent interventions by the Chief Constable:

“…policing in Northern Ireland got to the critical point at which our Chief Constable took it upon himself to write to the Prime Minister to seek direct intervention, over the heads of the Justice Minister, the Policing Board and the Northern Ireland Assembly. Such was the situation he felt so desperate about protecting, not just the backs of his own officers, but the people of Northern Ireland that he felt that that was the direction he needed to take.”

The South Antrim MP’s contributions concluded with a tribute to the work of PSNI officers:

“I pay tribute to our police personnel in Northern Ireland for the continued work they do in challenging situations, day after day, night after night, and in the face of a lot of criticism.”