Call for Army’s return to Northern Ireland’s streets
The military should be brought back onto the streets of Northern Ireland if police cannot deal with the terrorist threat, a former top police chief has said.
Norman Baxter, the officer who headed up the investigation into the Omagh bombing, said Chief Constable Matt Baggott should take whatever steps necessary to protect his officers — even if it means bringing back the Army.
The retired detective chief superintendent said the delayed police response to last week’s bomb attack on Newtownhamilton station “effectively abandoned the public to the risk of death and serious injury”.
And he has warned that military support is needed if police cannot protect themselves.
“The Chief Constable should be able to call on military resources in whatever way he deems necessary to protect his officers,” he told the Belfast Telegraph last night. “If that means soldiers walking the streets, then so be it.
“What is the price of a life — protecting some political commitment?
“Nationalists and unionists could both have died in the Newtownhamilton attack.”
“You are looking at the context of protecting the police, if the police cannot protect the public without endangering themselves.”
Writing in today’s Belfast Telegraph, Mr Baxter said it was time to stop the “pretence” that Northern Ireland is a normal policing environment.
“If the situation has arrived and I believe that it has (in some areas); where the police can no longer function to protect the lives of the public and prevent terrorism, it is the responsibility of the chief constable to seek military aid to the civil power through the justice minister,” he said.
“It is time to stop the pretence that there is a normal policing environment throughout Northern Ireland.
“The litany of terrorist attacks this year alone demonstrates that terrorism is resurgent.”
On the Newtownhamilton attack, he added: “The result was a tactical victory for the terrorists who have proved it is they and not the lawful authorities who set the agenda in border areas.”
Mr Baxter said if the bomb had exploded in England and the police had failed to respond, the chief constable, senior command team and the Home Secretary would have been forced to resign because of public outrage over the issue.
“The people of Northern Ireland should expect the same standards and yet our community has become so conditioned to accept the unacceptable,” he added.
It emerged yesterday that more than 200 full-time reserve police officers due to begin resettlement training in June could be asked to stay on for nine months.
Mr Baxter said that while retaining the full-time reserve was a practical first step, it was not enough.
One Comment