RUC/PSNI Revolving Door Policy Exposed, Again.

Republican Network for Unity shine a light on the revolving door policy of the PSNI regarding ex-RUC officers.

15 years ago the Patten Report consigned the RUC to history and ushered in a new accountable police force, or so we were led to believe. Instead, the people of the 6 counties received an MI5 controlled militia with a revolving door for ex-RUC gunmen.

Today (16th September) Drew Harris was appointed as deputy chief constable of the PSNI. Just like his senior George Hamilton, who was appointed chief constable earlier this year, Drew is an ex-RUC officer who was involved in a force that thoughtlessly used shoot-to-kill and oversaw collusion at the highest level

15 years ago the Patten Report consigned the RUC to history and ushered in a new accountable police force, or so we were led to believe. Instead, the people of the 6 counties received an MI5 controlled militia with a revolving door for ex-RUC gunmen.

Today (16th September) Drew Harris was appointed as deputy chief constable of the PSNI. Just like his senior George Hamilton, who was appointed chief constable earlier this year, Drew is an ex-RUC officer who was involved in a force that thoughtlessly used shoot-to-kill and oversaw collusion at the highest level.

As seen with chief constable the George Hamilton, who joined the RUC in 1985, it is evident that there is a revolving door policy within the PSNI. Officers who went out were later offered a way back in to more senior positions.

However, this is not the only case of the revolving door policy within the PSNI. Former chief constable Matt Baggot awarded a contract worth up to £180m to a private firm which allowed the PSNI to re-hire 1,000 retired RUC officers.

Up until 2010 when the scheme was still in use, £475m in redundancy packages was handed out to ex-RUC officers. 20% of all RUC officers who took the Patten redundancy plan were later rehired.

In 2012 NIPSA exposed that retired RUC officers were being re-hired for the PSNI for positions that were not publicly advertised. The PSNI has become what many critics said it would – an old boy’s network, used to fool the majority of people into thinking it was a new force, but internally it was the same old rotten police force that oversaw some of the most heinous acts ever committed in Ireland.

Nearly half of the 1,000 rehired were involved in some of the most sensitive areas of policing, including intelligence. Now directed by an unaccountable body of spooks in MI5, RNU believe that this is simply a recipe for disaster.

What happened to the new apparatus of policing? Where are the politicians who said they would put manners into the police in exchange for Republican support for a force that was quite simply irreformable?

This is exactly what Republicans predicted when Stormonteers took the decision to support policing in the 6 counties. Republicans who came to the conclusion that the people of Ireland were being led up the garden path were vilified and castigated.

Those of us who refused to support the unreformed militia have been often subject to empty shouts of ‘dissidents’ and allegations of criminality. Revolutionary Republicans recognized the RUC changed in name only, the internal structures and the political partisanship remained.

RNU reaffirm that the PSNI (incorporating the RUC) remain the front line of British rule in Ireland. Their premier task is defence of the state through the monitoring and crushing of political dissent, in particular organised Irish Republicanism.

Across the country, vulnerable citizens are still recruited as informers, including (by the PSNIs own admittance) many children who in return for providing information on Republican activists are allowed to commit anti-community crimes unchallenged.

This practice of providing immunity for anti-social criminals in return for information has led to the degradation of many once proud working class communities, where assault, vandalism, house breaking and drugs are now very real social problems.

Simultaneously, the PSNI also attempt to ingratiate themselves into working class communities adopting the veneer of ’Community cops’ in their attempt to gain access to community centres, primary schools, parish halls and other such facilities.

Republican Network for Unity will continue to work hard in exposing the PSNI for what they are; an unaccountable, unreformed and anti-working class militia, we encourage all Republicans, Socialists and progressive groups to do likewise.