There have been fresh calls for a review of the PSNI as it emerged Catholics are two-and-a-half times more likely to be targeted in stop and search operations.
The results of a PSNI pilot scheme into the community background of those stopped and searched shows members of the Catholic, Nationalist, Republican (CNR) community were targeted more often.
The pilot, which ran between April 30 – July 31 last year confirms that of those who responded 136 people said they were from the CNR community, while 52 were from a Protestant, Unionist, Loyalist (PUL) background.
In total 494 people refused to provide a response.
The Report of the Independent Reviewer Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 published earlier this year confirms there were more than 3,400 stop and search operations using sections 21 and 24 of the act between August 1, 2023, and July 31 2024.
Wireless apparatus or munitions including “multiple firearms, ammunition and a taser”, were found during ten searches involving section 24 or 26 of the act.
On other occasions, legally held ammunition and an airsoft weapon were recovered.
SDLP spokesperson for Collin, in west Belfast, Gerard McDonald said it is time to renew ‘the rule of law’.
“As we approach the 25th year of the PSNI it’s important we take time to reflect how our community is policed, if and how much powers have been used improperly, excessively, such that it could cause alienation and not grow confidence,” he said.
“The PSNI is underfunded, CNR background recruitment is stalled and the justice minister has failed to deliver offences to tackle hate crime and organised criminality, we need a renewal of the rule of law.”
Earlier this year SDLP leader Claire Hanna called for a review of the PSNI and voiced concern that policing has drifted from the reforms introduced by the Patten Commission.
Mr McDonald said a review is necessary.
“We are seeing statistics were those of Catholic, nationalist and republican backgrounds are being stopped more than twice as much under the Justice and Security Acts when compared to the nearest block in community background, this is a pattern that calls for further challenge from the (Policing) Board,” he said.
“SDLP Leader, Claire Hanna MP has called on the Stormont, London and Dublin governments to use this opportunity of 25 years of the PSNI to review our rule of law institutions, through independent experts we should interrogate what has worked well and what has went wrong and help deliver a justice system that upholds the rule of law and reflects the society it serves.”
Last week the Irish News revealed that PSNI figures appear to suggest Catholic officers are almost one and half times more likely to be investigated for misconduct than their Protestant counterparts.
The PSNI and Department of Justice were contacted.