The PSNI chief constable George Hamilton has warned that he can no longer afford to maintain his current force of just under 7,000 officers. Delivering the present level of safety and security is “simply not do-able”, he also said.
He told the North’s Policing Board today that he can’t guarantee he will be able to implement the cuts of £51.4 million that the Department of Justice has demanded from him.
“I am unable to provide full assurance that PSNI can deliver the required budget reductions and live within the revised budget,” he said.
"The level of cuts now being imposed means that 6,963 police officers is no longer affordable," added Mr Hamilton. "We can't take this amount of funding out of policing and pretend that people will not feel the impact," he warned.
“There will be consequences. I need to be honest, I need to be genuine about this. I am not going to pretend that I can deliver the same level of safety and security in this place with cuts of this scale - it is simply not do-able,” said Mr Hamilton.
The PSNI is the latest public body to feel the financial pressures caused by a predicted Northern Executive overspend of some £220 million up to the end of April which the British Treasury says it cannot tolerate - £87 million of that figure comes from fines imposed by the British Treasury for Stormont’s failure to sign up to British welfare reform.
Sinn Féin has used its veto within the Executive to block attempts by unionist and Alliance Ministers to adopt the welfare change.
The head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service Malcolm McKibbin has already written to the Treasury's permanent secretary Sir Nicholas Macpherson warning that the Executive will go into the red if the budget crisis is not resolved.
If the Executive breaks its budget then the Treasury could make up the deficit and subtract it from next year’s overall £10 billion subvention to Stormont, or more drastically it could take over responsibility for financial matters from the Executive.
The British and Irish governments have announced that multi-party talks are to begin in the coming weeks to address the impasse over welfare reform, as well as issues such as the past, parades and flags.
Earlier this week the PSNI announced the “effective” closure of the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) which was responsible for investigating some 3,000 cold case killings of the Troubles.
The PSNI also confirmed yesterday that the majority of officers investigating the 1972 Bloody Sunday killings which led to the deaths of 14 people are to be laid off as a result of the cutbacks. These are agency staff.
Elaborating on the financial pressures that he is facing, the PSNI chief constable Mr Hamilton said in the next six months he had to cut his budget by 7 per cent.
“Aside from the scale of these cuts, the constantly changing picture makes planning how to make the savings almost impossible,” he said.
“Charged with responsibility for the protection of our community I feel my organisation is being forced into a virtually impossible situation,” he added.
“The level of cuts required will fundamentally change how and where policing is delivered in Northern Ireland. This change in policing will be seen and felt by the community,” said Mr Hamilton.
He anticipated that with recruitment plans “significantly reduced” that “officer headcount will decline” over the next three years through retirement.
Mr Hamilton would not put a figure on how many officers would be in the force in three years time, but added, “I know I can’t employ people if I don’t have the money to pay them.”
“We can’t take this amount of funding out of policing and pretend that people will not feel the impact,” Mr Hamilton warned.
