APPENDIX 43
Memorandum submitted by the Police Federation
of Northern Ireland
The Police Federation for Northern Ireland welcomes
this opportunity to give comment to the House of Commons Northern
Ireland Affairs Committee. The task of "Dealing with the
Past" needs to be addressed by the Police Service of Northern
Ireland. As the dominant element in the security forces' response
to the terrorism, the Police Service bore the brunt of the prolonged
terrorist campaign.
Police officers understand the mortal risk that
accompanies policing almost anywhere in the world. However, in
Northern Ireland, police officers were murdered because they were
representatives of the State. Secondly, they were targeted on
or off duty. Their murder was the terrorist's intention rather
than, as would usually happen elsewhere, the officer's death would
be incidental or accidental in the commission of a crime. Iraq
would be a similar example of the deliberate targeting of police
officers for murder as a way of undermining the stability of the
State.
The Police Service suffered as a corporate body,
losing 302 officers through terrorist murders, another 70 through
suicides (although not necessarily Troubles related) and some
11,500 injured to a greater or less degree. As a result of the
effect of the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement of April 1998
led to the Patten Report, which reformed the Royal Ulster Constabulary
into the Police Service of Northern Ireland. While officers embraced
change, many also felt that reform was being presented as a rejection
of the professionalism and traditions of the RUC.
The Police Service also suffered a legacy from
the Troubles which affected in some degree, the 33,000 officers
who passed through its ranks from 1968, many of whom still continue
to serve. The officers were affected personally and individually
and so too were their families. Inevitably, there has been a physical
and emotional price paid by officers and families and it continues
to be exacted even now. There are five issues we would respectfully
invite the Committee to consider.
1. MATERIAL NEEDS
The loss of income occasioned by the death or
serious injury to a police officer is compensated through agreed
provisions of the Northern Ireland Police Fund and the Police
Dependants' Trust. Death in service entitlements are awarded to
widows and dependants of murdered officers and injury on duty
awards are available to disabled officers both by virtue of the
Police Pension Scheme.
However, officers killed or injured in the pre-1982
period have families who have not fared as well financially as
more recent families because of the erosion of the value of the
original compensation award. The Northern Ireland Police Fund
and the RUC Benevolent Fund have shored up the inadequacy of these
early awards but a more structured and permanent response from
Government is called for.
2. EMOTIONAL
NEEDS
The Police Federation became aware in the early
90s that serious and debilitating psychological illnesses were
widespread among serving and retired officers. Following survey
work, the Federation launched a Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
legal campaign against the Chief Constable.
The essence of the claim is not that officers
came across or were directly involved in traumatic incidents but
that management were negligent, in that there was little or no
attempt made to assist officers to cope with the psychological
distress caused by exposure to incidents. Since World War One,
evidence exists on the damage inflicted on combatants or civilians
exposed to repeated or even single periods of trauma.
Currently the Federation's solicitors are pursuing
a class action on behalf of 3,000 serving and retired officers
for compensation. The Government, as the ultimate paymasters,
are resisting the claim in every obstructive way possible by insisting
on proof of evidence at every conceivable stage. The Federation
has incurred considerable legal and other professional costs which
will severely limit the scope of its services should it lose the
case. The Federation believes that there is a public interest
to the case, in that the Federation was morally obliged to seek
redress for its suffering members and that the Government should
undertake to waive its rights to recover its legal costs in the
event of the Federation losing the case in court. Instead the
Government seems engaged in a war of financial attrition. The
attitude of the Government lacks compassion or any sense of obligation
to officers who had the most horrific experiences while upholding
the rule of law. A move to acknowledge a responsibility to meet
the plaintiffs' costs would be a welcome acknowledgement of the
damage to officers and their families and would be one way of
dealing with the past.
3. WHO ARE
THE VICTIMS?
The Federation cannot accept any moral equivalence
between those who murdered and those who were their hapless victims.
The desire to draw a line under the past through blurring the
distinction between perpetrators and victims has the attraction
of tidiness but over-eagerness to bring closure will prevent healing
through its sheer clumsiness. Measures to commemorate or revere
the sacrifice of the police or other murders of the security forces
should not be tarnished by crude assertions of claims that the
perpetrators of murder and violence were just as much victims
as those who were murdered or injured. The Federation finds the
idea utterly repellent that a common memorial, event or act, however
well meaning, would meet the needs of all those who have died,
for whatever motivation or reason, as a result of the Troubles.
Moves by the Chief Constable, backed by the
Government, to investigate through Cold Case Review the murders
of the 1,800 civilians and 211 police officers which remain unsolved
are warmly supported. While there is little ground for optimism
that convictions would follow in many instances, even allowing
for recent advances in forensic science, we believe that it is
the fresh and sincere attempt to explore the circumstances of
each murder which will bring comfort to the surviving families,
rather than the prospect of successful prosecution. At a monetary
level, given the recent estimates of £25 million for a Cold
Case Review, we believe this to be value for money, especially
when weighed against the Saville Inquiry and other expensive,
if less high profile inquiries, this will prove value for money
as well as providing a more constructive response to dealing with
the enduring sense of hurt.
4. TRUTH AND
RECONCILIATION COMMISSION
The Federation remains opposed to the setting
up of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). We are aware
that there are numerous variations to the form the Commission
or Inquiry body might take but nothing convinces us that within
the short term there is a useful model. We believe that the events
of the Troubles are too recent for significant forgiveness to
be offered and out of which might flow reconciliation. To believe
otherwise is to underestimate the depth of grief and bitterness
felt by bereaved families and injured innocents. It should not
be forgotten that it was decades after the Second World War before
there was any general reconciliation by prisoners of war with
the Japanese. While the scale of atrocity is different, the horror
of many of the paramilitary deeds remains shocking.
Secondly, Northern Ireland is too small for
comfort for people to have confirmed to them that their neighbour
fingered their close relative for assassination or even actively
participated in the deed.
Thirdly, and most fundamentally, it is self
evident that the struggle, armed or otherwise in how it is pursued,
is unresolved and that a TRC would be simply another way for protagonists
to carry on the "war". With the granting of early release
to terrorist prisoners, any incentive to come forward and tell
the "truth" was removed. A further constraint is that
police officers cannot be expected to give evidence or intelligence
to an TRC on people or events when the information could still
become relevant to the enduring conflict.
5. REPUTATION
On a final point in terms of this paper, the
Police Service of Northern Ireland has suffered terribly from
a sustained campaign of demonisation from the Republican movement.
The wider community held the view that during the Troubles, the
Royal Ulster Constabulary held the line against the most ruthless
and professional terrorist organisation in the world, so successfully
that eventuality the violence was judged to be fruitless. At the
same time police efforts were necessarily distracted by having
simultaneously to deal with loyalist paramilitary murder gangs.
It is only just that the sacrifice and commitment of the RUC was
rewarded with the George Cross, a singular award for corporate
bravery.
However, the onslaught on the reputation of
the police has not abated, even with the transformation into the
PSNI. Far from being regarded as the staunch defendants of law
and order, there has been a tendency to allow the police to be
deemed from a malicious hindsight as part of the problem of Northern
Ireland—as if the organisation had contributed to the intensity
of the Troubles rather than promoted the protection of the community.
The Police Service has not been without its faults but its commitment
has served and continues to serve the people of Northern Ireland
extremely well. In the present political uncertainty, the role
of the police is undiminished either in scope or centrality to
stability. Police officers could be forgiven for being dismayed
or even angered by their unsympathetic portrayal in some political
quarters. Jingoistic claims of having "got rid of" the
Full-Time Reserve, the past Chief Constable, or claims to have
hired their own man, are misplaced and undignified and fail to
recognise the calibre and professionalism of officers past and
present.
As part of dealing with the past, the Police
Service needs to go forward to enjoy the support of the whole
community. Any constraints on its ability to do so are a direct
consequence of political communities and parties either claiming
ownership of the police or preferring to portray them as a hostile
and biased instrument of the State.
The people of Northern Ireland have suffered
terribly due to the Troubles, none more so than the officers trying
to protect the lives of the innocent and bring justice to our
streets. For years, the police have been vilified and abused;
now they need and deserve the support of our Government. The time
has come for the Government to acknowledge and appreciate what
has been sacrificed by acting on the issues which have been highlighted
and regularly show their support for the PSNI in helping deliver
a stable, peaceful future for the people of Northern Ireland.
23 February 2005
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