Baggott ‘regrets’ car bomb response
The chief constable of the PSNI has said he regretted that officers were not on the ground before a car bomb exploded in Newtownhamilton last week.
Matt Baggott made the comments following an emergency meeting of the Policing Board on Monday morning.
He detailed measures that will now be taken to counter the dissident threat which is at its highest level in 12 years.
Mr Baggott confirmed more police will be deployed on the streets and there will be more checkpoints across Northern Ireland to help combat the threat.
“There are issues of police officer safety if we don’t take those seriously we may again compromise the public and we have to be very careful that we are not being lured into something more destructive,” he said.
“Clearly we regret that we were not there earlier.
“We will be working with our communities to see how we can improve our police presence and that confidence,” he added.
A Polish man and an elderly woman were injured in the car bomb blast outside the police station in Newtownhamilton in South Armagh on Thursday night.
The blast caused damage to an unmanned police station, nearby houses, a pub and a community centre.
A telephone warning was made to a hospital in Belfast at 10.30pm.
But police were still on their way to the town when the bomb went off almost 50 minutes later.
It was the second time in one week that the base was targeted. A previous car bomb was defused by police outside the station.
Earlier this month, the Real IRA admitted carrying out a car bomb attack outside MI5 Headquarters in Holywood, Co Down, less than half an hour after policing and justice powers were devolved to Stormont.
Last week, PSNI sources claimed the dissident threat was higher than at any time since the Omagh bombing almost 12 years ago.
The threat level has been assessed as “severe” since February 2009, one below “critical”.
