The PSNI has been asked by a unionist policy group to review its approach to the Protestant, Unionist, and Loyalist (PUL) community.
The engagement was requested in a letter from Unionist Voice Policy Studies to Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton.
After the PSNI released a report with recommendations for the future of policing in south Armagh, the call was made.
Chief constable Simon Byrne was forced to backtrack on several of the report's recommendations after facing a barrage of unionist criticism.
In their letter to Mr Singleton. The group stated it was made up of 21 members from "varying sections of the PUL community" including "the loyalist community, bands fraternity, bonfire/cultural groups, churches, community organisations, the legal profession, and media," It Claimed "There is, in our view, an inherent imbalance within the structure of policing in Northern Ireland which operates from a core overriding objective of securing nationalist support - which necessitates moving on a pro-nationalist political trajectory, eg all-Ireland policing, the criminalisation of PUL communities and most notably de-facto immunity for all IRA crime, both past and present,"
Given recent reports and watching the completely different approach to how the PSNI police Unionist events as opposed to Terror supporting Republican Events. One will find it difficult to not agree with that last paragraph. (JB)
Any subsequent report, according to the authors, should "offer the opportunity to make submissions and to engage to all sections of the PUL community."
According to Unionist Voice Policy Studies member Jamie Bryson, "there should be an equal urgency to deal with the zero confidence within PUL communities in relation to policing" in the light of the south Armagh review and concerns surrounding the Black Lives Matter protests.
Jamie Bryson says the PSNI should "outsource this to a senior council or a senior barrister that is independent of policing who should actually conduct this review"
Would you agree? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below. (JB)
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