Northern Ireland’s Chief Constable Simon Byrne has expressed concern about a £23 million funding gap.
e described “real financial pressures†which could result in 300 fewer police officers.
He told the Northern Ireland Policing Board: “To give you some scale of that, that’s 10 police support units, TSG type of things that we use in protests, parades and disorder, or 10 major incident teams that could be dealing with serious organised crime, terrorism and murders.
PSNI officers on patrol in Belfast (Liam McBurney/PA)
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“These are real life choices that we’re facing at the moment.â€
He said there is concern that as Northern Ireland emerges from lockdown in April, police will see increased demand with a “gradually declining†workforce.
Officer numbers are projected to fall to 6,719 by March 2022.
“It is our formal organisational assessment that the current draft budget allocation is not sufficient to facilitate meaningful delivery of outcomes under the Policing Plan 2020-2025,†he said.
“The complexity of the current policing environment should not be underestimated. This is not the time to contemplate any reduction in community-based policing.â€
The chief constable said January had seen a peak in terms of demand for police, as officers dealt with 3,639 Covid-related incidents.
He said 1,080 fixed-penalty notices of £200 were issued, with the majority related gatherings in private dwellings.
Mr Byrne also expressed concern at a 14% rise in assaults on officers since the introduction of lockdown, and a rise of nearly a quarter in grievous bodily harm with intent – which he described as spitting on police officers.
He added: “This is not an acceptable way of treating loyal public servants. Neither police officers or police staff come to work every day expecting to be assaulted and nor should they be.
“It has an effect on them in terms of injury, trauma and indeed their family lives.
“We would welcome support in terms of sentencing to make sure that the crime is seen to not pay in this regard.â€
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