Northern Ireland Chief Constable urges ‘buy-in’ for support of police service

Northern Ireland’s Chief Constable has called for “buy-in” from all quarters to support police to become representative of all communities.

Jon Boutcher referred to a “very small section of society” who try to disrupt events such as police visits to schools or community meetings.

He spoke of his frustration, describing “bigoted” and “out-of-date” attitudes of some based on “views that go back decades” and before the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

A meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board heard that while the recent recruitment campaign has generally seen a good response, it is lower than statistically expected application rates in certain areas, such as Belfast, Mid Ulster, and Derry City and Strabane.

Some 28.8% of applicants to the 2025 student officer recruitment campaign were Catholic, lower than the 45.7% of the Northern Ireland population according to the 2021 census.

Some 37.4% were female, against 51% of the population, while 3.9% were from ethnic minority communities, compared with 3.4% of the population, and 7.9% were LGBT+, compared with 2.1% of the population.

PSNI chief operating officer Pamela McCreedy told the board they have assessed progress towards becoming fully representative as “adequate”.

She also warned that relatively small numbers of leavers from under-represented groups have a “really disproportionate impact” on the overall workforce composition.

Ms McCreedy said progress on LGBTQ representation was as a result of investment, consistent engagement and building relationships.

She said there is also progress in terms of representation among women and Catholic officers in senior ranks moving closer to population benchmarks.

Mr Boutcher said representation is a challenge for the PSNI, but they need buy-in across society, referencing a call in the Patten Report on the future of policing in Northern Ireland in 1999.

“Everybody here in this room speaks positively about policing… but in recent months that we’ve had community meetings disrupted and disturbed by masked individuals because of the history here,” he said.

“We’ve had recruitment events, including in schools, where, because schools are engaging with the PSNI, there’s a bomb hoax or there’s a threat from dissident Republicans.”

Mr Boutcher said “these elements are really small and they’re really marginal” but added “I would question whether all of society is collectively standing up to herald policing in Northern Ireland”.

He said: “So we will never do enough in my view on this, but there’s a lot more we can do.

“There’s a menu of things that we’re now trying to really press the flesh to make sure that we’re doing everything that we humanly can.

“You will see in coming weeks fly-on-the-wall documentaries about what we’re doing, and I think that will show a real pride in the organisation, and the difference we make to all communities.

“This is something that is broader than just the things we do to try and attract people from the nationalist Catholic community or the working class loyalist community.

“It’s about buy-in from society for police in Northern Ireland in a post-conflict environment, which is easy to talk about, but it’s much harder, you need more courage, to actually do.

“I think our 25th anniversary is a real opportunity for us to have some really challenging debates.

“I think it’s a watershed moment – if we don’t get this right, this year, we will see that decline.

“This is a chance for us to make sure that decline doesn’t occur.”

DUP Policing Board member Keith Buchanan challenged all the political representatives to actively encourage people to join police.

“Some complain and are totally fascinated by spreadsheets, talking about representativeness… and complain, but they don’t promote joining the PSNI… please don’t complain at the next board meeting about representation if you haven’t promote it,” he said.