No 50-50 split for police part-timers

Part-time applicants can be aged from 18 to 61

A new Police Service of Northern Ireland campaign to recruit part-time officers will not be restricted by the 50-50 Catholic-Protestant balance which operates for regular officers.

The PSNI wants to recruit 1,500 part-time officers for community policing over the next three years.

The numbers being recruited to the police service are lower than anticipated because fewer than expected Catholics applied.

The Patten Report on Police Reform in Northern Ireland recommended equal numbers of Catholics and Protestants for the new PSNI which replaced the old RUC.

Alex Attwood: Unconcerned at lack of 50:50 recruitment for part time officers

Part-time officers will be sought in Coleraine, County Londonderry; Lisburn and Newtownabbey, County Antrim, and Banbridge, County Down.

These areas all have large Protestant populations.

PSNI director of human resources Joe Stewart said: "The 50/50 rule does not apply to part-timers, but we hope to appeal to a wide range of people in those areas we have chosen."

He admitted an advertising campaign was not yet planned in mainly Catholic areas.

"We are very keen for success so we are going to go to those areas first where we are likely to have a successful response," he said.

'Discrimination'

The Patten Report planned a "peace-time" service of 7,500 regular officers and 2,500 part-timers.

Some 7,000 regulars and 950 part-timers are currently serving. No part-time officers have been recruited for the last eight years.

The new part-time officers will be trained for four weeks in the full range of police activity, except public order situations.

They will carry guns and the pay rate will be £9.76 an hour.

However, Democratic Unionist Party Board member Ian Paisley Jnr said 50-50 recruitment should now be abolished in the recruitment of full-time officers.

Ian Paisley Jnr: "50-50 recruitment should be abolished"

"If there is willingness to change the views of 50:50 recruitment on the part time element then there should be willingness to move away from the discrimination that occurs for regular officers," he said.

Applicants for the part-time posts can be aged between 18 and 61. They will be allowed to serve until they are 65, unlike regular officers who retire at the age of 55.

Mr Stewart said this higher age limit was "quite deliberate".

"We believe there are a very considerable number of people in their 50s who are now working part-time or retired early and wish to give something back to the community."

Training for successful applicants will be carried out later in the year, but it may be January 2003 before they begin their duties.

SDLP Policing Board member Alex Attwood said he was unconcerned that the 50-50 rule did not apply to part-time officers.

He said the Patten report wanted targeting of areas where few Catholics were applying for regular police jobs, which the government had accepted.

"When the full recruitment exercise is run through, those who come to the part-time reserve will be more Catholic than Protestant because overall it will target those areas," he said.

Meanwhile, the Ulster Unionist Party has demanded the scrapping of the 50-50 rule for recruitment of regular officers to the Police Service.

Speaking in the House of Lords, UUP peer Lord Rogan said "it denied equality of opportunity" and was "nothing short of discrimination".