Overtime huge says Spence

Back in February the Sentinel reported how the Vice-Chairman of the Police Federation Mark Lindsay felt officers were sooner or later going to be burnt out due to excessive workloads.

Now Brendan McGuigan, the Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice, has published a report suggesting the PSNI review its resilience capacity to “address the risks of, and the alternatives to, excessive periods of continuous duty.”

Mr McGuigan says the PSNI should “look at ways in which tactical effectiveness in situations of public disorder can be managed while maintaining the freedom of the press.”

Equally, they “should conduct an expeditious overall critical review of performance from recent events.”

He says that “the level of capacity has been eroded over a period of time.” This has included slashing front line riot squads (Tactical Support Group) by 46 per cent since 2000 and an overall cut to the PSNI staff by 38 per cent over the same period.

“The drivers behind this downsizing include fiscal pressures, the reduction in size of the overall police service, and a general trend towards accommodations and reducing tensions surrounding parades,” Mr McGuigan reports.

Notwithstanding the substantial dismantlement of the visible security state in the aftermath of the Belfast Agreement in recent months there have been moves to redress the balance.

“Very recently, further resilience has been added to the overall public order capacity through significant increases, for example, in the dual purpose Armoured Land rover (ALR) fleet and in part-time public order units,” he says.