PSNI Warns Against NCA Block

The PSNI has warned that a block on the National Crime Agency operating in Northern Ireland could have a "detrimental impact on our ability to keep people safe".

The NCA has been described as the UK equivalent of the FBI and will work to strengthen UK borders, tackle cyber crime and fight organised crime and fraud.

But the SDLP and Sinn Féin have voiced fears that the extension of the NCA to Northern Ireland would create an "unaccountable" police force and undermine the transfer of policing and justice from Britain which occurred under the Good Friday Agreement.

A PSNI statement said: "If the NCA is unable to operate fully in Northern Ireland, this will have a detrimental impact on our ability to keep people safe. The precise extent of this impact is difficult to quantify at this stage but it will definitely have an adverse impact on PSNI performance in combating serious and organised crime. Organised crime is an international problem and Northern Ireland is a target for international crime groups.

"At the same time, we are acutely aware that the confidence and consent of the whole community are essential to the delivery of policing. We recognise that agreed accountability plays a central role in achieving this.

"Northern Ireland is in a unique position. Major aspects of policing and justice have been devolved here and the accountability arrangements are rightly a matter for local and central Government to determine.

"It remains our view that the NCA should only work in Northern Ireland alongside the PSNI, so that operational control ultimately remains with the Chief Constable and nothing proceeds without agreement. There must be complete transparency for PSNI of the NCA’s intelligence, investigations and operational activity. Through such arrangements, the Chief Constable can be held accountable for NCA operations via the Policing Board."

But Sinn Féin policing spokesman Gerry Kelly said: "The 'National Crimes Agency' is refusing to be accountable to the normal mechanisms negotiated in the Good Friday Agreement and over the last number of years.

"We recognise the importance of co-operation between different agencies to combat organised crime and this is clearly working on a North/South basis in Ireland and between police in Ireland, Britain and in other police agencies throughout the world.

"The primacy of the PSNI in combating organised crime, indeed all criminality, is paramount. Alongside that is the need for all agencies to be accountable to the mechanisms already in place, such as the Police Ombudsman’s Office and the Policing Board.

"We can not have two tier policing in the North of Ireland. Historically when the accountability mechanisms were not in place policing powers were abused in a very extreme, political and partisan way against one section of our community. We will not return to those days."

(IT/CD)