Removal of 50:50 ‘negatively impacted’ Catholic recruits to PSNI, says Hargey

Removal of 50:50 has had a “negative impact” on the number of Catholic recruits in policing, a Sinn Fein spokesperson has said.

Deirdre Hargey MLA, who sits on the policing board for the party, said the drop in recruits from nationalist backgrounds is “not down to Sinn Fein”  ahead of a meeting with the forces Chief Constable Jon Boutcher.

Recruitment figures released by the PSNI last week showed that the percentage of new Catholic applicants to join the force was at its lowest in more than a decade.

Police said more than 4,000 people had applied for their latest student officer recruitment campaign, with 65.6% from a Protestant background, 26.7% from a Catholic background and 7.7% undetermined.

Between 2001 and 2011, there was a 50:50 recruitment initiative which meant there was one Catholic recruit for every one person from a Protestant or other background.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson said any return to the policy would be a mistake.

Speaking at Stormont Parliament buildings on Monday, Ms Hargey said the drop in numbers shows that the removal of 50:50 “has had a negative impact”.

“That’s something that we’ll be directly addressing with the Chief Constable today, and raising with him in terms of looking at 50:50 recruitment again to try and reverse that trend,” she said.

She added: “It worked back in 2001 to 2011 where (we saw) an increase from 8% to over 30% and we believe that we need to get back to that process of work going forward.”

Asked if in their meeting Sinn Fein would be calling on Mr Boucher to reinstate 50:50, Ms Hargey said: “We think that that is a policy, yes, that needs (sic) because it did have an impact when it was introduced the last time.”

Ms Hargey highlighted Troubles legacy cases and more recently the investigation into the death of Belfast schoolboy Noah Donohoe as instances that have “a damage and impact on policing if it’s not done in the right way”.

Asked about initiatives taken by the police to try and improve relations with the nationalist community such as changing operational guidance on the removal of paramilitary flags, Ms Hargey said there is still “concern and barriers in order to command that support”.

“When you speak to young people in nationalist/republican communities, the issues around legacy, the issues of not seeing visible policing on the ground within their community to respond to their needs, and also a culture are barriers that they’re highlighting,” she said.

“We want to work with the police in terms of removing those barriers, but they need to be doing more to understand the community, and this is something the police have said themselves previously, that they do need to understand the community, and in order to do that, we believe that more direct and consistent engagement needs to be done.”

Asked how Sinn Fein have tried to engage with the nationalist community on policing, Ms Hargey said, “we have been doing that”.

“I’ve been very proactive at a Belfast level in terms of challenging sectarian manifestations, even from within my own community, and communities across the city as well,” she said.

“And we have had regular engagements with the PSNI and with other statutory agencies to deal with those issues.

“But I think it is clear, I mean, the fact that we’re not seeing recruits, that’s not down to Sinn Fein, that’s down to… that there are clear barriers there for members of the community that they don’t feel at this point, that policing as a career for them, we need to understand what those barriers are.”