PSNI ‘at breaking point’ as £21m budget gap threatens officer numbers

Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MLA Alan Chambers

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is facing what has been described as a “crisis point” as its Chief Constable, Jon Boutcher, confirmed this week that the organisation is dealing with a £21 million budget deficit in the current financial year.

Speaking during a meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, Mr Boutcher said he is relying on the upcoming October monitoring round to cover the gap. However, Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MLA Alan Chambers has warned that any short-term fix would amount to little more than “a sticking plaster solution”.

Mr Chambers, who sits on the Policing Board and serves as the UUP’s spokesperson on policing, argued that the current financial strain is severely undermining the PSNI’s ability to keep communities safe.

He said: “An outcome from the monitoring round that would enable the Chief Constable to cover the current year budget deficit is a sticking plaster solution that will not enable the PSNI to proceed with their plan to increase the number of officers to a more manageable figure of 7,000.”

Road safety concerns amid officer shortage

The number of officers available for duty has already impacted road safety enforcement across Northern Ireland. Dedicated road policing units have been scaled back, even as the number of deaths and serious injuries on local roads rises.

“Those officers who are still deployed on patrolling our roads are working extremely hard to make the roads safer and reduce the unacceptable number of deaths and injuries that are currently occurring, but require more support to increase police visibility on our roads,” Mr Chambers said.

Murder investigations and national support

The Chief Constable also disclosed that the PSNI is struggling to manage a surge in serious crime, with nine murders reported since June. He revealed he may have to request detectives from other UK police forces to assist in the investigations.

Mr Chambers described the situation as “unprecedented”, adding:

“This situation of the Chief Constable having to seek the secondment of detectives from other areas in the UK with the skill set to investigate murder cases must cause the PSNI a degree of embarrassment…”

“It once again highlights the fact that the current level of serving officers in the PSNI is forcing the Chief Constable and his senior management team to attempt to provide the level of policing that the people of Northern Ireland demand with one arm tied behind their back.”

Neighbourhood policing under pressure

Financial pressures have also sidelined neighbourhood policing, a model long considered vital in preventing crime and maintaining community trust.

“The Chief Constable is strongly and correctly committed to the principle of neighbourhood policing… As things stand, the concept of neighbourhood policing has been somewhat sidelined due to financial constraints. Given the ability to snip local problems in the bud, the PSNI know that it is a false economy to reduce or totally eliminate neighbourhood policing,” Mr Chambers warned.

Policing major events in doubt

Another issue highlighted at the Policing Board meeting was the PSNI’s role in supporting major events, such as the 2019 Open Championship in Portrush.

While costs were recovered for that event, Mr Boutcher indicated that current officer numbers may prevent the PSNI from committing to similar large-scale policing operations in the future.

Mr Chambers cautioned that this could have significant consequences for tourism and the wider economy:

“If such events cannot come to Northern Ireland because of an inability for them to be properly policed, the loss to the local economy, with free extensive international exposure, would far outweigh the funding required from the Executive to allow the officer numbers to increase to 7,000 over the next three years and then onwards to the staffing numbers of 7,500 officers as recommended in the Patton Report.”

Call for urgent funding action

The UUP MLA placed responsibility firmly with Justice Minister Naomi Long, calling on her to urgently secure the necessary funding to restore police numbers and capacity.

“The historic and deplorable underfunding of the PSNI must be addressed as a matter of urgency, and the Ulster Unionist Party would call on the Minister for Justice, Naomi Long MLA, to robustly seek and provide the funding to permit the PSNI to provide the level of policing the people of Northern Ireland deserve.

“The time for honeyed words and hollow promises is long past. When the PSNI tell us that they don’t have the capacity to investigate local murder cases, then something drastic needs to be done to address this unacceptable reality.”