Police reforms 'gutted' by Bill

Bill shifts focus from policing to police

A member of the body which recommended sweeping police reforms in Northern Ireland has accused the government of dismantling its report in proposed legislation.

Professor Clifford Shearing, who sat on the Independent International Commission on Policing headed by Chris Patten, said the Police Bill (NI) had gutted its proposed reforms.

Writing in The Guardian, the Toronto-based criminologist said the focus of the government bill was the police rather than policing.

"The Patten report has not been cherry picked - it has been gutted."

Professor Clifford Shearing: Bill abandons vision of Belfast Agreement

He quoted the Patten report in which it said "policing is a matter for the whole community, not something the community leaves the police to do".

"The bill, as its name makes clear, rejects this conception. It is a police bill - not a policing bill."

Professor Shearing was critical of the Police Bill because it "abandons the notion of policing as a collective community policing and fails to heed the Patten report's plea to us and them concepts of policing".

He said the bill proposed to create a Policing Board in "name only".

"We see the role of the new body going beyond the supervision of the police service itself, extending to the wider issues of policing and the contributions that people and organisations other than the police can make towards public safety."

He pointed out that the Patten report had proposed the "Policing Board would have extensive powers of, and resources for, oversight to enable it to hold the police accountable".

"It rejected the established doctrine of 'operational independence' in favour of the concept of 'operational responsibility'."

It is not a new beginning, it will not serve the people of Northern Ireland - nor will it serve the many, many dedicated persons within the RUC

Clifford Shearing

He said the Patten report had proposed a power to require the chief constable to report on any issue pertaining to the performance of his functions or those of the police service.

He added that the powers of the chief constable to "question this requirement" were strictly limited to cases of national security, sensitive personnel matters and cases before the courts.

The report had further said that the Policing Board would have the power to follow up on any report from the chief constable by instituting an inquiry.

"The bill completely eviscerates these proposals," he said.

"It would allow the chief constable to question almost any attempt by the board to get behind a report they have received."

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He said the Bill also allowed the secretary of state to quash an inquiry ordered by the board and described this provision as a "travesty".

He referred to the terms of reference which formed the basis of the Patten report which required the commission to "bring forward proposals to ensure the police service enjoys widespread support from, and is seen to be part of the community as a whole".

This required "transparency" while he said the Bill made it possible to hide and obscure.

"The Bill does not fulfill the hopes and vision of the Belfast Agreement.

"It is not a new beginning. It will not serve the people of Northern Ireland.

"Nor will it serve the many, many dedicated persons within the RUC who have been looking for a new vision for policing that will move and inspire them to police in partnership with the communities they serve."

Professor Shearing is the second member of the Patten commission to voice criticism of what nationalists have described as a "dilution" of the commission's recommendations.

Previously, Dr Gerard Lynch of New York's John Jay College, had warned that the Police Bill should not alter the recommendations of the Patten Report.

The Bill enters its third stage in the House of Lords on Wednesday when Ulster Unionist peers are expected to table an amendment calling for a moratorium on reforms pending a declaration that terrorism has ended in Northern Ireland by the secretary of state.