SF Takes Control Of Newry Policing Partnership

Another milestone has been passed in local policing with news that Sinn Fein has taken over control of the body set up to liaise with the police and the local community in one of the most contentious policing areas of the Province

The chairmanship of Newry and Mourne's District Police Partnership (DPP) has been handed to Sinn Fein Councillor Brendan Curran.

Policing has always been difficult in the border area, and the irony of a republican being put in charge of the police advice body in Newry - where the RUC suffered its greatest single loss of life at the hands of the IRA – won’t be lost on many commentators.

Already, after taking up his post yesterday, the new DUP chairman wasted no time in criticised the history of policing in the area, but said his new role is aimed at ensuring "that people can live in peace and safety, free from intimidation, threat or violence".

Mr Curran took charge of the Newry DPP some 22 years after the IRA killed nine police officers in a mortar attack on the local police station.

The officers died when a mortar struck a canteen at teatime.

The casualties were the largest loss of life suffered by the RUC in any single incident.

The new chairman said yesterday: "Policing with the community needs to be the core function of any civic policing service and we want to ensure that will happen.”

He added: "Sinn Fein wants to see the local community and criminal justice agencies, especially the PSNI, working together to ensure that people can live in peace and safety, free from intimidation, threat or violence.

"Many communities feel that the PSNI neither have the commitment nor the willingness to deal with anti-social violence and criminality in their areas. Many see the PSNI as being indifferent to their plight. There is a feeling of abandonment.

"Sinn Fein is working to open new space for the local community and criminal justice agencies, especially the PSNI, to work together and fulfil their obligations to uphold the rights of those who want to live in safety and peace.

"Our communities want the PSNI to do its job, to thoroughly investigate complaints of criminality and anti-social behaviour and arrest those responsible and take them off the streets,” he said.

DPPs are currently being reformed to take account of Sinn Fein's acceptance of policing. Councillors are being appointed to reflect Sinn Fein's strength on councils across Northern Ireland, and the Policing Board is currently recruiting new members.

However, Sinn Fein members have been also having a difficult time in places, as several local councillors have recently received death threats – allegedly from ‘dissident’ republicans - over their agreement to participate in the DPPs across Northern Ireland.

These included repeated threats on the life of Breige Meehan - a Newtownabbey Sinn Fein counsellor and now widow of the IRA man, Martin Meehan, who died last week.

(BMcC)