24 June 2009

PRESS RELEASE

Full Time reserve must be kept - Cree

The Ulster Unionist Party has welcomed an Assembly motion which has expressed its concern at the loss of the full-time Reserve and its impact on policing in Northern Ireland following a recommendation by the Police Constable.
Commenting during the debate held on Tuesday 23rd, Policing Board member Leslie Cree said; Throughout the Troubles, 303 members of the RUC made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the public in Northern Ireland. Many of those were members of the full-time Reserve. The Chief Constable has, rightly, recognised the important service that the Reserve has delivered and our debt of gratitude for its members’ commitment."
"Patten stated that for the full-time Reserve to be stood down, the security situation must not have deteriorated significantly from the situation that existed at that time. Although it is true that routine and widespread terrorist acts are no longer a daily reality for our society, the past year has seen an upsurge in dissident activity. That was seen particularly in the murders of Sapper Mark Quinsey and Sapper Patrick Azimkar and in the subsequent murder of Constable Carroll in Craigavon. The challenges of policing divided communities were also highlighted by the brutal murder of Kevin McDaid."
"It is, therefore, unsurprising that the Chief Constable recently said that the dissident threat is at the highest that it has been in the past seven years. The most recent Independent Monitoring Commission report concluded that with regard to dissident republican groups:
"there has been a continuing high level of serious violent activity, often with the express intention of killing, or making possible the killing, of members of the PSNI and other security personnel, and often doing so by imperilling the lives of members of the general public".
"I accept that the disbandment of the full-time Reserve is an operational matter. However, with an imminent change at the top of the Police Service, it is the Ulster Unionist Party’s view that it is imperative that a full-time Reserve is kept in place to allow the new Chief Constable to evaluate the matter for him or herself. This cannot be a matter of ideology or partisanship about policing a society threatened by terrorist organisations, and, as recent events in Belfast show, threatened by thuggery. We need police officers on the ground; we need the full-time Reserve.

ENDS…