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PSNI: “non siamo a corto di uomini”

PSNI not understaffed despite job push

Police chiefs in Northern Ireland have denied the PSNI is under-resourced, as they launch a campaign to recruit experienced officers from forces in the UK and Republic.

Agenti di polizia | Police officersMoney has been made available to combat the dissident threat and the PSNI hopes to recruit around 40 experienced officers for the full-time permanent positions.

The move has sparked concerns that the police force in Northern Ireland is under-staffed, something PSNI Senior Director of Human Resources, Joe Stewart, refutes.

“It’s not a question of being under-resourced; it’s the opportunity presenting itself to us and us seizing the moment to take this initiative,” he said.

“We got the additional funding to help combat the dissident threat and with this we can move existing officers to that focus and recruit these new people in to deal with standard crime issues.”

Mr Stewart said although the PSNI is especially keen to find detectives, financial investigators and those who are trained in serious sex crime, there are other positions.

“There’s not a chief constable across the UK or Republic who wouldn’t take more officers if they had the money for them. What we can do is recruit experienced officers, we can also ensure we have police officers in jobs that require police powers, and that means also recruiting about 100 police staff.”

Chair of the Police Federation Terry Spence has welcomed the move, but said recruiting 40 officers is not enough.

“It’s a drop in the ocean – we’re on record as saying we need an additional 1,000 officers so that we can meet this terrorist threat head on, deal with this public order situation and deal with community policing as was envisaged in the Patten recommendations,” he said.

Mr Spence says money could be used in other ways to assist existing police officers.

“It’s very clear that there are huge amounts of money being spent on overtime commitments and I have a firm view that if some of that money was redirected to additional officers within the service there would be less overtime having to be worked and officers would not be fatigued or experiencing burnout,” he said.

A similar recruitment drive took place four years ago, when a number of detective constables were appointed to the PSNI’s Crime Operations Dept from other police services.

An advertising campaign will begin in early July, with recruitment ads being placed in UK and Irish police publications with the process completing in early autumn.

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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