More doom and gloom for NI police?

Crime levels have increased over the year

By Denis Murray BBC Ireland correspondent

In a series of Q&A sessions on BBC radio programmes in the wake of the publication of the Police Service of Northern Ireland's first annual report, the one question all the interviewers raised was: "It makes for pretty gloomy reading, doesn't it?"

Well, yes and no.

Let's try for a bit of context.

I must say I can't remember an annual report issued by the RUC over all the years that actually made for non-gloomy reading.

Colin Cramphorn: "At least we've made a start"

Like the hundreds of murders every year, the number of bombings every year, and the horror generally of the Troubles and its attendant security situation.

The paramilitary ceasefires, for all their difficulties and wobbles, transformed that - and by comparison with previous reports, this one isn't as bleak as it might have been.

Rising crime

That said, it could also have been a lot brighter.

Despite the ceasefires, more than 300 people were still charged with public disorder or terrorist-type offences.

And as if that isn't bad enough, overall, crime (including what, in Belfast, they rather misleadingly call "ordinary decent crime", to distinguish it from terrorism) was up more than 16%.

I must say I can't remember an annual report issued by the RUC over all the years that actually made for non-gloomy reading

The Acting Chief Constable of the PSNI, Colin Cramphorn, said a certain amount of the increase was due to better IT systems within the force, and other improvements in the reporting of crime area; and he said he understood the figure for England and Wales, to be published by the Home Office shortly, would show about a 6% rise.

That meant, in his view, that the NI figures weren't "out of kilter" with other parts of the UK.

Organised crime

Traditionally, non-terrorist crime has been very low in NI - but as the security situation eases, it's rising.

That's partly to do with the security situation; in years gone by, it was impossible to drive round Belfast and other areas without coming across security force vehicle checkpoints (VCPs).

In the new atmosphere, it is now a rarity to see a VCP.

The force recently introduced new uniforms and a new crest

It's also to do with organised crime - and in NI that's really a euphemism for criminal activity run by members of paramilitary groups - drugs, smuggling (a major black industry, because of the proximity of the land frontier with the Irish Republic, part of the euro zone), and so on.

The fear that paramilitaries engender continues, and what better organised crime "enforcer" could there be than those who committed murder for so-called political reasons for 30 years.

Mr Cramphorn said he was particularly concerned about the increase in armed robberies, because of the threat to life they posed.

Low morale

But the crux of the report, really, was two-fold: street disorder and morale.

There's been continuing and very serious rioting in places like north and east Belfast - so bad that the resources the PSNI has had to divert to coping with it means there's a deleterious effect on tackling what Mr Cramphorn called everyday crime.

A third of new recruits are female

He also said he believed that paramilitaries on both sides were orchestrating the disorder for their own ends, which was shown by how it could be "turned off and on".

He wouldn't comment though on whether any group was in breach of its ceasefire.

This is the first report in the name of the PSNI rather than the RUC, and that name change (the dropping of the word Royal in particular) felt like a stab in the back to many officers.

A lot of very experienced officers have taken early retirement -they might have anyway, but one said to me: "I joined the RUC, and I'm going to leave the RUC."

High calibre recruits

There's major concern over sickness rates - always a barometer of morale - and Mr Cramphorn stressed several times at his news conference that the force had experienced a lot of pain, and had yet to see much of the gain that was supposed to have been the product of police reforms, and the increasing grip of peace.

On the brighter side, the new recruits who've applied to the PSNI are of a high calibre - there's been no problem filling the places - and each class has been 50/50 Protestants and Catholics, with about a third of every intake being female.

It'll take five to 10 years for that to have a major effect on the force - but as Mr Cramphorn said: "At least we've made a start."