Reserves must apply for PSNI jobs
Members of the full-time reserve will not get special consideration when applying for civilian posts assisting the PSNI, the chief constable has said.
Matt Baggott made the comments as he outlined his decision to go ahead with plans to scrap the 440-strong full-time reserve to the NI Policing Board.
Mr Baggott said they were free to apply for the jobs the same as everyone else.
DUP leader Peter Robinson said former reservists should have a chance to play a future role in the service.
“We are always in the process of looking at civilianisation,” Mr Baggott said.
“We are releasing a lot of police officers back to the streets – anyone with the skills and experience for those jobs (they have vacated) are quite entitled to apply.”
Phasing out of the police reserve – an auxiliary group of officers who support the regular force in mainly security-related work – was one of the recommendations of the Patten report.
Last week, Mr Baggott said there was no operational need for the reserve and that plans to wind it up in 2011 would proceed.
He said that significant number of officers needed to be released from “non-police duties” to enhance “front-line visibility”.
Scrapping the reserve has become entangled in the political move to devolve policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Mr Robinson said that if the reserve was phased out in keeping with wider police reforms, his party believed front-line policing must be protected.
He added that former reservists, who he said were a valuable police resource, should have a chance to play a future role in the service, where it is understood administrative posts are to be created.
He continued: “We will not interfere with the chief constable exercising his operational independence but we and the public will make a judgment whether it (scrapping the reserve) assists in, or detracts from, reaching the necessary level of community confidence.
‘Community confidence’
“If community confidence is not in place we will not agree to devolving these sensitive functions.”
The government have offered the DUP and Sinn Fein a £1bn deal to implement the deal.
It has been accepted by Sinn Fein, but DUP has yet to agree a date for devolving the powers.
Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister said the DUP were in “complete disarray” over the issue.
The SDLP’s Mark Durkan has criticised both Sinn Fein and the DUP over their handling of devolving the powers.
He said: “Now is the time for the double-speak and double standards to end on the devolution of policing and justice.”
“Responsible leadership is needed to deliver this important and politically sensitive issue.”
Sinn Fein, who once said a deal could be secured before Christmas, on Thursday said they would accept an agreement before Christmas that included a firm date for the devolution of the powers.
However, Martin McGuinness warned that failure to secure agreement before then risked “deep trouble”.
