The Policing Board’s human rights adviser has criticised the PSNI’s “endless excuses” over how it records the community background of people arrested or stopped and searched. Investigative website The Detail has previously revealed that almost twice as many Catholics as Protestants were arrested and charged in Northern Ireland between the start of 2016 and the end of 2020.
However, the available figures do not provide a complete picture. The Policing Board’s annual human rights report, published last week, noted that a “significant number” of people also refused to tell police about their background.
“There may be a number of different reasons for this disparity, including the possibility that people from the Catholic community are more willing to answer questions about their religious background,” the report read.
Human rights solicitor John Wadham said while he was impressed with much of the PSNI’s work, he had concerns people’s community backgrounds were not being properly recorded.
“I am not persuaded by the endless excuses [from] the PSNI on why it can’t do community background [recording],” he said.
“It’s very depressing. I’ve read the legal advice: [it] says there’s no problem in just doing it.” The PSNI did not share its figures on the community background of people arrested or stopped and searched with the Policing Board until an investigation by The Detail.
The board’s annual human rights report, written by Mr Wadham, noted that it was “surprising” that the information had not been shared with board members, nor had the force investigated the disparity between the number of Catholics and Protestants arrested and charged.
Mr Wadham said that the issue of ‘two-tier’ policing had been raised for many years “from both perspectives”.
“When we have seen some evidence of the difference, particularly between the two communities in Northern Ireland, the evidence appears to be that about twice as many Catholic, nationalists and republicans are subject to stop and search, subject to arrest, subject to charge, subject to spit/bite guards, subject to strip-search of young people. Twice as many as the Protestant, unionist, loyalist community,” he said.
The report recommended that the PSNI employs an independent expert to look at the figures. The Detail asked the PSNI if it was going to do so but did not receive a direct response. Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said the PSNI’s approach to recording the community background of people arrested or stopped and searched has been “evolving for a couple of years”.
“It hadn’t been published [previously], so we accept that. We also accept that, the data set that we have, we haven’t been robust enough in recording it,” he said.
“It also sits alongside the very fundamental question about asking for community background information from people, which has been raised with us in a number of forums.
“We discussed this as a service executive board last week and the strong view is that we should just get on with being more direct now in asking those questions and getting those answers out.”
In March 2022, the PSNI’s Police Powers Development Group (PPDG) was asked to investigate the arrest figures. The PSNI did not respond to questions from The Detail regarding an update on the PPDG investigation.
In a statement, PSNI Chief Superintendent Jon Henry said the force had been looking into how to record the background of those arrested “for some time”.
“The PSNI continues to explore how community background might be recorded, in consultation with the NI Policing Board, the Information Commissioner’s Office, the Department of Justice, the NIO, the Independent Reviewer of Justice and Security Powers and other relevant stakeholders,” he said.
Of those stopped and searched by the PSNI between August 2020 and July 2021, 45% were Catholic and 24% were Protestant, the Policing Board report stated. A further 28% did not have their community background recorded by the PSNI, while the remaining people’s background was listed as ‘other or none’.
>The Detail has previously revealed that almost twice as many Catholics as Protestants were arrested and charged in Northern Ireland between the start of 2016 and the end of 2020.
It’s interesting that the British media don’t report on issues such as these.
It’s almost as if N Ireland was a different place, overseas.
2 comments
The Policing Board’s human rights adviser has criticised the PSNI’s “endless excuses” over how it records the community background of people arrested or stopped and searched. Investigative website The Detail has previously revealed that almost twice as many Catholics as Protestants were arrested and charged in Northern Ireland between the start of 2016 and the end of 2020.
However, the available figures do not provide a complete picture. The Policing Board’s annual human rights report, published last week, noted that a “significant number” of people also refused to tell police about their background.
“There may be a number of different reasons for this disparity, including the possibility that people from the Catholic community are more willing to answer questions about their religious background,” the report read.
Human rights solicitor John Wadham said while he was impressed with much of the PSNI’s work, he had concerns people’s community backgrounds were not being properly recorded.
“I am not persuaded by the endless excuses [from] the PSNI on why it can’t do community background [recording],” he said.
“It’s very depressing. I’ve read the legal advice: [it] says there’s no problem in just doing it.” The PSNI did not share its figures on the community background of people arrested or stopped and searched with the Policing Board until an investigation by The Detail.
The board’s annual human rights report, written by Mr Wadham, noted that it was “surprising” that the information had not been shared with board members, nor had the force investigated the disparity between the number of Catholics and Protestants arrested and charged.
Mr Wadham said that the issue of ‘two-tier’ policing had been raised for many years “from both perspectives”.
“When we have seen some evidence of the difference, particularly between the two communities in Northern Ireland, the evidence appears to be that about twice as many Catholic, nationalists and republicans are subject to stop and search, subject to arrest, subject to charge, subject to spit/bite guards, subject to strip-search of young people. Twice as many as the Protestant, unionist, loyalist community,” he said.
The report recommended that the PSNI employs an independent expert to look at the figures. The Detail asked the PSNI if it was going to do so but did not receive a direct response. Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said the PSNI’s approach to recording the community background of people arrested or stopped and searched has been “evolving for a couple of years”.
“It hadn’t been published [previously], so we accept that. We also accept that, the data set that we have, we haven’t been robust enough in recording it,” he said.
“It also sits alongside the very fundamental question about asking for community background information from people, which has been raised with us in a number of forums.
“We discussed this as a service executive board last week and the strong view is that we should just get on with being more direct now in asking those questions and getting those answers out.”
In March 2022, the PSNI’s Police Powers Development Group (PPDG) was asked to investigate the arrest figures. The PSNI did not respond to questions from The Detail regarding an update on the PPDG investigation.
In a statement, PSNI Chief Superintendent Jon Henry said the force had been looking into how to record the background of those arrested “for some time”.
“The PSNI continues to explore how community background might be recorded, in consultation with the NI Policing Board, the Information Commissioner’s Office, the Department of Justice, the NIO, the Independent Reviewer of Justice and Security Powers and other relevant stakeholders,” he said.
Of those stopped and searched by the PSNI between August 2020 and July 2021, 45% were Catholic and 24% were Protestant, the Policing Board report stated. A further 28% did not have their community background recorded by the PSNI, while the remaining people’s background was listed as ‘other or none’.
>The Detail has previously revealed that almost twice as many Catholics as Protestants were arrested and charged in Northern Ireland between the start of 2016 and the end of 2020.
It’s interesting that the British media don’t report on issues such as these.
It’s almost as if N Ireland was a different place, overseas.