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NI: "Amateur" Police Authority

01 July 1994

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The Chief Constable for Northern Ireland, Sir Hugh Annesley, has described the Police Authority for Northern Ireland as "a bunch of well-meaning, good-intentioned amateurs" (Belfast Telegraph 1.4.94). His comments come in the wake of a Northern Ireland Office consultative document on Policing in the Community, which proposes to shift responsibility for police finances and civilian staff from the Police Authority to the Chief Constable. The Authority is wholly appointed by the Secretary of State and its membership remains largely secret on grounds of personal security. Neither the SDLP nor the trade unions take their places on the Authority, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions having withdrawn in 1980. It is clear that the Chief Constable now intends to by-pass even this minimal level of accountability by reporting directly to the Secretary of State.

In another attack on accountability, two RUC constables are taking legal action against the Independent Commission for Police Complaints. The ICPC directed that the two officers should face disciplinary charges after the Director of Public Prosecutions failed to recommend their prosecution for allegedly batoning repeatedly a loyalist from the Sandy Row area of Belfast. The constables are seeking a judicial review of the ICPC's decision on the grounds that the DPP has already judged that no offence took place.

Irish News 6.5.94.

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