Derry 90% more dangerous than North's average - councillors told

Derry City and Strabane is 90% 'more dangerous' than other areas in the North and unfit funding has left PSNI in 'a really bad place' according to the Chair of the Police Federation for NI.

Liam Kelly, a PSNI Inspector and current Chair of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland told Derry City and Strabane Council about the budgetary pressures facing PSNI.

He presented to DCSDC's Governance and Strategic Planning Committee on Tuesday last.

The PSNI currently has 6,557 Police officers and 2,358 police staff members however Mr Kelly told Council those are not the latest figures and are both likely reduced by up to 40.

Mr Kelly said the drop in staff is due to the lack of funding and in turn creates a number of problems in the district.

“That's a direct consequence of the PSNI operating in a deficit budget and there will be consequences for that, in fact we're experiencing some of those consequences as we speak,” he said.

“Last year the PSNI had a £59 million deficit, which they were able to do by finding efficiencies and closing down parts of the police estate.

“This year they started with a negative budget of £141 million – so far they've got that down to £38 million, still in deficit, however, that doesn't represent any pay award for their police officers or staff for 2023. So that figure has been upwardly revised to reflect that to be in and around a £52 million deficit as things stand today.”

From April 2023 the PSNI has had no new recruitment of staff or officers according to Mr Kelly. Meanwhile, officers are leaving the service 'not only on retirement but leaving service early in careers or mid careers'

“That's a direct consequence of PSNI being unable to pay a competitive salary.

“At the moment, basically, we're in a bit of a bad place, a really bad place, and it's a place not of our own making. Policing has not had the budget allocated to it to make it sufficient to provide the full services that it can and we're starting to see the consequences of that now.”

Derry and Strabane is one of four areas in the North that saw crime rise in 2023. According to the Crime Rate website it is 90% 'more dangerous' to live in Derry City and Strabane than other areas in the North.

Mr Kelly said the only place ahead of it on the website is Belfast City.

He said 'crimes against the person' such as sexual offences, robbery, assaults are on the rise, as are theft, drugs and possession of weapons are on the rise in four areas, including Derry.

“It's also a sad reflection that some 25 year after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement that we still have a terrorist threat where our officers are being targeted both on and off duty and you don't need me to tell the Derry City and Strabane Council, it was November of last year where we had the first attack on our officers in your city and also the device left outside Waterside Police station.”

He also mentioned the attack in February on Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell in Omagh in February.

“Those things, compounded by the data breach that occurred over the summer months, has resulted in PSNI having spiralling sickness levels with reducing resource because there hasn't been investment in place and we've seen officers having increased workloads and their morale has plummeted.

“Because of no uplift in remuneration we've seen a lot of junior officers who were employed to come into the police service being unable to take second employment because of the nature of their role as police officers, which has resulted in them moving on to other careers.”

Officers sometimes step in when other workers go on strike, adding to the stress on its own resources Mr Kelly explained.

In one instance this year police officers drove ambulances when health care workers went on strike.

According to Mr Kelly, police also have to 'pick up the slack' with mental health support and social services but can't maintain that going forward.

“I'll put it to yourselves as councillors: what would happen if the police as a body were unable to provide their full statutory function? Because I believe we are getting to that point now because of the crippling budget.

"It's difficult to address at present because we haven't got our own devolved administration and the Conservative party in England seems to be turning its attention now to survival in relation to its own reelection when the general election is called next year so unfortunately policing in Northern Ireland is well down the political radar.”

Underfunding has resulted in the ‘decimation’ of some services and an inability to carry out repairs.

“We've already seen the decimation of our community policing teams right across Northern Ireland. We have reduced visibility of police. We have police vehicles unable to be repaired because the money is not there to do it, therefore that reduces the visibility and the ability of patrols to be conducted, which results in reduced community interactions.

“Another thing we've seen is a reduction in the reporting of matters to police because the reality is we're not going to be able to respond as effectively as we have in the past and slower or reduced investigations will produce poorer criminal justice outcomes for victims of crime so confidence levels in policing will recede.”

Despite the many issues the force faces, a recent report from His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary showed the North is safer on average than much of Britain.

“The rate of crimes is 58.6 crimes per 1000 people average across Northern Ireland, compared with England and Wales that number is 93.6 so that's a credit to our staff and officers for the work that they put in,” Mr Kelly said.

However, he said those 'encouraging levels' are going to be difficult to maintain unless something is done about the budgets and numbers continue to decline.

He said a proper budget is needed to maintain current crime rates and to start recruiting and in turn address the issues he outlined.