Poles in the PSNI

national | crime and justice | news report Saturday March 03, 2007 19:40 by Lech

PSNI Poles have much police experience.

What is the background of the 728 applications from Polish passport holders to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.?

The original source of some 87% of the applications was the Warsaw affiliate of a London based UK human resources consultancy which had been engaged by the Home Office in 2004 to offer support to the various police forces in the UK in increasing diversity.

The main Polish HR business they worked with was one which specialized in finding work for former members of the Polish police forces and security services and military.

Obviously people of some form of service background would be a good fit for the PNSI, or indeed any police force.

The largest component of the future Polish members of the PSNI are former members of the Zmotoryzowane Odwody Milicji Obywatelskiej (ZOMO) (Motorized Reserves of the Citizens Militia).

These were the were paramilitary riot police formations, thus making them an excellent fit for the PSNI.

These units of Milicja (Polish police) provided security during "large" events, but are most notably known for their work in quelling protests and riots during martial law in the 1980s. Again invaluable experience for the types of role they are expected to carry out in the PSNI

Originally, their main task was defined as "the protection of the nation," and their main role was as a rapid-response police force like the Garda Siochana Special Task forces of the 1980s. However over time their role evolved into riot control.

They were equipped with BTR-60 Armoured personnel carriers, tear gas and firearms as well as various types of riot equipment such as batons, plastic shields and helmets. Again their veterans make an excellent fit for the PSNI. They wore dark blue military uniforms with the same camouflage pattern as the one used by the Polish Army.

Their long white "assault batons", similar to those unofficially used by some units of the UDR, were lovingly nicknamed "Lola”.

The Secretary for State for Northern Ireland, has, according to information gained from staff of the Northern Ireland Office, been quite flexible in granting, exemptions to the age requirements for membership of the PSNI to our new Polish Police Constables.

It is hoped to have the first contingents of Polish Roman Catholic PSNI officers on the streets of the province by the beginnings of this years marching season.

Given the lamentable but real reluctance of "native Irish " Roman Catholics to join the PSNI it is seen as being politically useful to have Roman Catholics themselves dealing with the inevitable response in Roman Catholic areas to the role to be played by Mr. Adams and the Provisional Sinn Fein party in the government of Northern Ireland.

As an aside, according to information received, the original idea for encouraging the recruitment of Poles for the PSNI, after the fortuitous and accidental first few inquiries via the Home Office diversity consultants, came from a Northern Ireland Office civil servant who wrote an MA thesis on a UTV TV series called Quatermass

This was shown in the Autumn of 1979 and featured white South Africans, Afikanners, who fled after a Black uprising, being recruited to fill jobs in the London Metropolitan Police.

In the TV series they were formally called the London Metropolitan Contract Police, or informally "Pay Cops".

Who says that a media studies masters is no use in a civil service job?