政治市，國師午間教路。投資需要法治，需要穩定的普通法體系，這是大家知道的，過去英治時代對投資者的保護，現在恐怕逐漸消失。我們現在見到的司法崩潰，是香港的制度本來就會發生的，是built-in一定會發生的，2019年的護法運動只是個觸發點，令大家見到香港法治崩潰而已。
由於香港沒有確定主權，故此香港沒有民主，沒有民主就沒有法治。當法官由特首委任而立法會不是民選也無權罷免特首的時候，就沒有法治。Don't you understand? It's as simple as that. 在香港這個地方，政府可以用緊急法，遇到司法覆核，可以用公權力申請上訴來延遲法律的效力。
更簡單的極權，是借助法庭的搜查令及禁制令。搜查令不必講了，衙門可以將示威者和記者的手機和電腦集中在衙門總部，向法庭申請搜查令，之後可以hack入去開手機電腦、收電訊。
早前，衙門申請禁制令，不可洩漏差役的私隱，包括拍攝差役，於是有15歲學生拍攝餐廳的時候有差役在內而拘捕了他。以這個禁制令，基本上可以拘捕所有在示威現場拍攝情況的記者，而記者也確實已經被拘捕了。我們的法庭竟然頒布了這種禁制令。香港已經有私隱保護條例，而差役也有阻礙差人執法的法例保護，法庭是毋須grant them extra right的。
現在，永久的禁制令也出了，香港的法官變成可以創制法律。本來，在普通法的制度，法官是可以用判例來創制法律，但用永久禁制令就是legal innovation。
時代廣場2018年成功向高等法院取得臨時禁制令，禁止任何人在時代廣場地面露天廣場範圍演唱和進行街頭表演。高院今日聆訊，處理在欠缺抗辯下頒發最終判決的申請。法官需時考慮時代廣場申請的其中一項命令，但表明會頒發永久禁制令，預計本月底或下月初頒下書面判決。
為什麼不設立限制條款而要永久化呢？
這類惡法的開始，是曾蔭權時期立法的禁止後園飼養家禽的法例。當年草擬期間，我在《信報》極力倡議要加入限制條款，例如當禽流感可以治療或疫病不再流行的時候檢討和放寬，或這條法例只是在衛生署宣布疫病流行的期間生效，即是附帶疫埠條款。然而，立法會無人響應，惡法無聲無息地通過了，缺少雞來食地裡的蟲，新界的農地開始惡蟲肆虐，土壤硬化劣化，難以耕種。
最大的問題，當然是全香港的土地房產在2047年會面對一個嶄新的、中華人民共和國法系管轄之下的香港特區政府管理。
風險？無噶。繼續投票給2016年競選論壇不承認2047議題的泛民和自由黨，就沒有風險的啦。
最後請放心，上述的法學常識，不會在報紙輿論出現，更不會在泛民的議員口中出現。
本星期三，我會在文化沙龍講述這些香港的制度病患，及如何展開普選制度研究來探求答案。我是給予答案的人。
Source: 陳雲
https://www.facebook.com/wan.chin.75/posts/10157786313972225
Showing posts with label Police Brutality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Police Brutality. Show all posts
Monday, January 20, 2020
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
警方研究引入電槍
應該引入手榴彈，最缺乏的、但最容易使用的鎮壓示威武器是手榴彈，一出手榴彈即刻驅散群眾。衙門也可開坦克車巡邏，見到示威者就開砲射擊。
個別差役巡邏必要時攜帶肩托式火箭炮也可以，見到不順眼的市民就發炮，直接粉碎和燒焦，處理屍體的時間都省回。港共衙門畏首畏尾，直接變成佔領軍隊就可以為所欲為啦。
Source: 陳雲
https://www.facebook.com/wan.chin.75/posts/10157771521817225
個別差役巡邏必要時攜帶肩托式火箭炮也可以，見到不順眼的市民就發炮，直接粉碎和燒焦，處理屍體的時間都省回。港共衙門畏首畏尾，直接變成佔領軍隊就可以為所欲為啦。
Source: 陳雲
https://www.facebook.com/wan.chin.75/posts/10157771521817225
警方否認油塘墮樓拍攝者被捕
毋須否認啊。衙門根本不顧名聲，否認與承認都無人理會。陳雲又不會執政，誰奈何得他們呢？
Source: 陳雲
https://www.facebook.com/wan.chin.75/posts/10157769835282225
Source: 陳雲
https://www.facebook.com/wan.chin.75/posts/10157769835282225
Monday, January 06, 2020
【專訪】被昔日同袍割席絕交痛如失戀 前警員：他們不信抗爭者為公義犧牲「咁戇居」
由初夏到寒冬，一場反送中運動讓香港成為蒙面之都，無論警員及抗爭者都選擇蒙面隱藏身份，前者更拒絕出示委任證，兵賊難辨。一眾抗爭者則期待運動勝利後可於「煲底除罩相見」。
現年 29 歲的 Canaan Wong 曾任職警員，這場運動他則是抗爭者。這獨特身分有助他理解示威者與警察於思想上的分歧，但同時為他帶來煩惱——曾經他與百多名前同袍相熟，近月關係割裂只餘三、四個警隊好友。「好唔開心…」他形容感覺有少許像失戀。
社會紛擾、關係撕裂，是許多香港人近月的共同煩惱。但此時 Canaan 沒選擇退後，反而除下面罩，接受傳媒訪問，為的是增強說服力，讓更多人知道仍有人願站出來以真面目示人，推動這場抗爭。
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| 近期每逢周末，彌敦道旺角及太子一帶，都駐有防暴。（資料圖片） |
中學就讀於傳統男校，大學取得社會學學士學位的 Canaan，是一名基督徒。2015 年雨傘運動後加入警隊，初衷是進入相對封閉的警察圈子，透過與他們相處生活，親身了解這個群體與市民口中的警察有何不同、是否真的難以溝通。任職警員約一年後，Canaan 認為自己對警隊文化已有一定了解，故決定辭職，探索從事其他職業的可能性，現職教學助理。
始於去年初夏的一場反修例運動，Canaan 一如很多香港人，多次走上街頭參與示威遊行，更數度與昔日同袍於示威現場相逢對峙。而現時唱至街知巷聞的「願榮光歸香港」，Canaan 亦是初期版本其中一位演唱者，並坦言當初未能估計迴響會如此大。
警隊存「擦鞋」文化 學歷矛盾
持大學學歷的員佐級警員算是警隊中的少數，Canaan 2015 年加入警隊時社會相對平靜，與同袍相處融洽，他更認為大部分前線警員都是「被剝削的一群」，很多人家境不佳，無法獲得更好的事業發展機會，故不少人毅進畢業、不夠 20 歲就加入警隊，與外界的接觸不多，加上警隊內部有不少不良文化，例如「擦鞋」討好上司，博取升職機會等，縱使部分有理想的警員不認同這些文化，但「你當做戲又好，咩都好」亦要屈服，否則可能會被排擠，這也令部分警員為了工作而做出一些違背良心的事。
此外，Canaan 也認為警隊內部存在一定程度的撕裂，因由學歷造成的矛盾一直存在，不少大學生畢業便考取督察，甫入警隊就比已有 20 多年經驗的「老差骨」職位為高，部分下級警員難免對此不滿，質疑「點解佢可以上到位，咁快可以騎住我」。同時欠缺經驗的督察亦要依賴經驗豐富前線警員協助，故對前線警員管束相對寬鬆，此現象亦體現於反修例運動中，部分前線警員不受上級控制的事件。指揮官即使知道前線不聽從指示，但因害怕「無人肯出前線」而選擇不處分違規警員，「咁班前線繼續做嘅，只會越嚟越無後果，越嚟越癲。」
Canaan 眼中，警隊高層對前線工作亦不甚了解，通常只聚焦於一堆可以向政府及保安局交代的數據，並為此舉辦很多無甚意義的活動，例如舉辦反罪案活動不斷查市民身份證等，不同警區更會攀比查身份證的次數，視為指標向上級「交數」。近月情況當然不同，但邏輯相通，「我諗而家警隊濫捕都係差唔多道理。」
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| 前警員 Canaan |
香港重光 方談復和
這半年來政府及警隊不斷呼籲社會各界與「暴力」割蓆，卻似乎不得其門而入。另一邊廂，「和理非」與「勇武派」相互支持「和勇不分」，大部分市民與警隊處於對立面，社會撕裂日益嚴重，警隊與抗爭者彷彿身處平行時空，互不理解。Canaan 認為，大部分警員並不相信抗爭者會為追求公義而自我犧牲，「佢哋覺得示威者點會為咗公義、為咗無錢賺嘅嘢，犧牲咁多時間、前途、甚至自己條命去行出嚟，大部分警察都唔會信有咁戇居嘅人，好多警員嘅價值觀都係利益為先、賺錢為先、安定繁榮為先」。Canaan 眼中閃過一絲無奈，「我諗呢個都係其中一個原因，導致示威者同警察或者藍絲，思想上有咁大分歧。」
對於成立獨立調查委員會調查警暴，Canaan認為只有等待香港「重光」、於真普選下成立的獨立調查委員會，才可推倒警隊不良文化，建立可行制度追究濫權警員，從而真正修補社會撕裂，否則只是敷衍持「淺黃」政見市民的手段。
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| 6月21日，示威者包圍警察總部期間，警察總部外牆被投擲大量雞蛋。 |
同袍好友數目驟跌 心痛如失戀
曾與一眾前線警員相處約一年，Canaan 表示，離職時仍慶幸能與百多名前同袍保持聯絡，但隨著反修例運動發展，他的警隊好友數目驟跌至只剩 3、4 人，前同袍因視他為「黃絲」，更將他從通訊群組中移除。說到此處，Canaan 一度「眼濕濕」：「好唔開心，有少少好似失戀咁，好誇張，嗰排瞓唔著覺。」他曾想過，有天可與他們和好，或讓對方知道何謂真正的公義，怎料對方選擇在這刻停止這段關係，「我就好心痛。」
說起現時仍有保持聯絡的數名警察好友，Canaan 透露他們留任理由各異：有人自認「港豬」，為了生計繼續做警察；亦有人經過一番思考，仍相信可於體制內作改變，亦自稱不會濫用武力及濫捕，且社會需要警察維持治安，「佢哋真心覺得，如果呢一刻無咗警隊，香港會更加亂」。但 Canaan 認為更多的現任警員，對自己的工作並沒有多加思考，「只係覺得自己維持治安，就係英雄」，部份警員甚至很喜歡「打仗」又或是槍械愛好者，覺得處理前線衝突「幾刺激，幾好玩」。
用前警員身份綜觀警隊現時過度使用武力的情況，Canaan不禁搖頭輕嘆：「而家佢哋違晒規，我諗政府擺到明隻眼開隻眼閉，包容、縱容佢哋濫捕」，但不少警員卻認為是「示威者搞事先，用武力去制服係好正常」，有些警員則覺得要展示威信，絕對地制服示威者，「當然有部份係控制唔到自己情緒，因為呢半年佢哋精神壓力都好大，好多警員被起底，被身邊朋友完全 isolate（孤立），所以佢哋要在這些場合發洩出嚟」。諷刺的是，學堂教導警員要以最低武力制服疑犯，制服後應立即停用武力，「而唔係好似而家咁去扑佢，仲要係扑頭。」
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| 立場新聞圖片 |
友誼可貴 公義無價
面對往日同袍好友淪為陌路人，Canaan 縱使心痛但仍選擇站在公義那邊，並坦然面對後果，包括跟昔日同袍斷裂關係，「可能會反晒面，佢哋會好憎我」。然而 Canaan 直言，拋開前警員和抗爭者的身份，他最大的身份是基督徒，「我仍然相信聖經所講的正義觀，好大程度唔係而家警察做緊嘅嘢，而係抗爭者爭取緊嘅嘢，都係我最想做嘅嘢」。
訪問尾聲，記者問 Canaan 會否擔心訪問出街後，兩面不討好，他輕鬆地一笑帶過：「都無辦法，點都會有人質疑你，之前仲有人話我係『鬼』……但要推動個運動，總要有不同人嘅參與。」
Source: 立場人語
https://www.thestandnews.com/politics/%E5%B0%88%E8%A8%AA-%E8%A2%AB%E6%98%94%E6%97%A5%E5%90%8C%E8%A2%8D%E5%89%B2%E5%B8%AD%E7%B5%95%E4%BA%A4%E7%97%9B%E5%A6%82%E5%A4%B1%E6%88%80-%E5%89%8D%E8%AD%A6%E5%93%A1-%E4%BB%96%E5%80%91%E4%B8%8D%E4%BF%A1%E6%8A%97%E7%88%AD%E8%80%85%E7%82%BA%E5%85%AC%E7%BE%A9%E7%8A%A7%E7%89%B2-%E5%92%81%E6%88%87%E5%B1%85/?fbclid=IwAR0pYlTlQM1cLXOYm18Joi2i7cz59SqNbFP2VXQhiIEbaIrkn8RDmV2Jpw8
https://www.facebook.com/standnewshk/videos/vb.710476795704610/576023112977413/?type=2&theater
Sunday, October 13, 2019
The Patten Report on Policing: Summary of Recommendations
Human Rights
1
There should be a comprehensive programme of action to focus policing in Northern Ireland on a human rights-based approach. [para. 4.6]
2
There should be a new oath, taken individually by all new and existing police officers, expressing an explicit commitment to upholding human rights. The text might be as follows –
"I hereby do solemnly and sincerely and truly declare and affirm that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of constable, and that in so doing I will act with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality, uphold fundamental human rights and accord equal respect to all individuals and to their traditions and beliefs." [para. 4.7]
3
A new Code of Ethics should replace the existing, largely procedural code, integrating the European Convention on Human Rights into police practice. Codes of practice on all aspects of policing, including covert law enforcement techniques, should be strictly in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights. [para. 4.8]
4
All police officers, and police civilians, should be trained (and updated as required) in the fundamental principles and standards of human rights and the practical implications for policing. The human rights dimension should be integrated into every module of police training. [para. 4.9]
5
Awareness of human rights issues and respect for human rights in the performance of duty should be an important element in the appraisal of individuals in the police service. [para. 4.10]
6
A lawyer with specific expertise in the field of human rights should be appointed to the staff of the police legal services. [para. 4.11]
7
The performance of the police service as a whole in respect of human rights, as in other respects, should be monitored closely by the Policing Board. [para. 4.12]
Accountability
8
An entirely new Policing Board should be created, to replace the present Police Authority. [para. 6.2]
9
The statutory primary function of the Policing Board should be to hold the Chief Constable and the police service publicly to account. [para. 6.3]
10
The Policing Board should set objectives and priorities for policing over a 3 to 5 year period, taking account of any longer term objectives or principles set by the Secretary of State or successor. It should then be responsible for adopting a 3 to 5 year strategy, prepared by the Chief Constable through a process of discussion with the Board, which should reflect the objectives and priorities set by the Board. [para. 6.5]
11
The Board should be responsible for adopting an Annual Policing Plan, developed by the Chief Constable, through a process of discussion with the Board, on the basis of objectives and priorities set by the Board, and within the agreed 3 to 5 year strategy. [para. 6.6]
12
The Board should be responsible for negotiating the annual policing budget with the Northern Ireland Office, or with the appropriate successor body after devolution of policing. It should then allocate the police service budget to the Chief Constable and monitor police performance against the budget. [para. 6.7]
13
The Board should monitor police performance against the Annual Policing Plan and the 3 – 5 year strategy. It should watch crime trends and patterns, and police performance in public order situations. It should also follow such things as recruitment patterns and trends, including fair employment and equal opportunities performance, and training needs. It should assess public satisfaction with the police service and, in liaison with the Police Ombudsman, patterns and trends in complaints against the police. [para. 6.8]
14
The Board should have the responsibility for appointing all chief officers and civilian equivalents and for determining the length of their contracts. All appointments should be subject to approval by the Secretary of State (and successor after devolution) and the Chief Constable should be consulted in relation to the appointment of subordinate chief officers and civilian equivalents. The Board should have the power to call upon the Chief Constable to retire in the interests of efficiency and effectiveness subject to the approval of the Secretary of State (and successor) and to the right to make representations as at present. Similarly, the Board should have the same power in relation to other chief officers and civilian equivalents exercisable subject to the approval of the Secretary of State (and successor) and to the same right to make representations and after consultation with the Chief Constable. The Secretary of State should have power to require the Policing Board to call upon the Chief Constable to retire on the same grounds but this power should be exercisable only after consultation with the Board and subject to the same right to make representations already referred to. Additionally, after devolution the relevant Northern Ireland minister should have power to call for the retirement of the Chief Constable on the same grounds but this should be subject to the agreement of the Policing Board and the approval of the Secretary of State with an equivalent right to make representations. The Board should be the disciplinary authority for chief officers and civilian equivalents. [para. 6.9]
15
The Policing Board should coordinate its work closely with other agencies whose work touches on public safety, including education, environment, economic development, housing and health authorities, as well as social services, youth services and the probation service, and with appropriate non-governmental organizations. [para. 6.10]
16
The Policing Board should have 19 members, 10 of whom should be Assembly members drawn from the parties that comprise the new Northern Ireland Executive, selected on the d’Hondt system, who should not at the same time hold ministerial office in the Executive. [para. 6.11]
17
The nine independent members of the Board should be selected from a range of different fields – including business, trade unions, voluntary organizations, community groups and the legal profession – with the aim of finding a group of individuals representative of the community as a whole, with the expertise both to set policing priorities and to probe and scrutinise different areas of police performance, from management of resources to the safeguarding of human rights. Their appointments should be for four years; but if it were necessary for the purpose of continuity to ensure that not all Board positions fell vacant at the same time as elections to the Assembly, some of these appointments could be for an initial period of two years. [para. 6.12]
18
The independent members should be appointed by the Secretary of State, in consultation with the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister, until such time as responsibility for policing is devolved, at which point the appointments should be made by the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister acting together. Until devolution, the Secretary of State should also determine the remuneration and expenses of Board members, in consultation with the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister. [para. 6.13]
19
A Board member of high quality and standing in the community should be appointed by the Secretary of State to be the first chairman of the Board, with the agreement of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister, for an initial term of four years. [para. 6.14]
20
Responsibility for policing should be devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive as soon as possible, except for matters of national security. [para. 6.15]
21
The powers of the Policing Board proposed in this report, in relation to both government (as now represented by the Secretary of State) and the Chief Constable, should in no way be diminished when the government role in the tripartite arrangement passes to the Northern Ireland Executive. [para. 6.15]
22
The provisions of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998 should be simplified so that the respective roles of the Secretary of State (or successor), the Policing Board and the Chief Constable are clear. [para. 6.16]
23
The provision, in Section 39 of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998, that the Secretary of State may issue guidance to the police as to the exercise of their functions, should be repealed. [para. 6.18]
24
The Chief Constable should be deemed to have operational responsibility for the exercise of his or her functions and the activities of the police officers and civilian staff under his or her direction and control. [para. 6.21]
25
The Policing Board should have the power to require the Chief Constable to report on any issue pertaining to the performance of his functions or those of the police service. The obligation to report should extend to explaining operational decisions. If there is a disagreement between the Board and the Chief Constable over whether it is appropriate for a report to be provided on a particular matter, it should be for the Chief Constable to refer the question to the Secretary of State for a decision as to whether the Board’s requirement should stand. [para. 6.22]
26
The Policing Board should have the power, subject only to the same limitation set out in paragraph 6.22, to follow up any report from the Chief Constable by initiating an inquiry into any aspect of the police service or police conduct. Depending on the circumstances, the Board should have the option to request the Police Ombudsman, the Inspectorate of Constabulary or the Audit Office to conduct or contribute to such an inquiry, or to use the Board’s own staff, or even private consultants for such a purpose. [para. 6.23]
27
Each District Council should establish a District Policing Partnership Board (DPPB), as a committee of the Council, with a majority elected membership, the remaining independent members to be selected by the Council with the agreement of the Policing Board. The chair of the DPPB should be held by an elected member, with rotation between parties from year to year. [para. 6.26]
28
The District Policing Partnership Board in Belfast should have four sub-groups, covering North, South, East and West Belfast. [para. 6.27]
29
There should be monthly meetings between the DPPB and the police District Commander, at which the police should present reports and answer questions and the Board should reflect community concerns and priorities to the police. The views expressed by DPPBs should be taken fully into account by the police and by the Policing Board in the formulation of policing plans and strategies at the central level. [para. 6.30]
30
The DPPB should submit an annual report to the District Council, and publish it. [para. 6.31]
31
The approved administration costs of the DPPB should attract a 75% grant from the Policing Board, the remaining 25% to be funded by the District Council. [para. 6.32]
32
District Councils should have the power to contribute an amount initially up to the equivalent of a rate of 3p in the pound towards the improved policing of the district, which could enable the DPPB to purchase additional services from the police or other statutory agencies, or from the private sector. [para. 6.33]
33
It should be the aim of every police beat manager to have a consultative forum in his or her patrol area. [para. 6.34]
34
The Policing Board should maintain regular contact with the DPPBs, through periodic meetings of chairpersons, annual conferences, seminars, training courses and by including them in the circulation of information. [para. 6.35]
35
The Policing Board should meet in public once a month, to receive a report from the Chief Constable. [para. 6.36]
36
District Policing Partnership Boards should meet in public once a month, and procedures should allow for members of the public to address questions to the Board and, through the chair, to the police. [para. 6.37]
37
The police service should take steps to improve its transparency. The presumption should be that everything should be available for public scrutiny unless it is in the public interest – not the police interest – to hold it back. [para. 6.38]
38
The Police Ombudsman should be, and be seen to be, an important institution in the governance of Northern Ireland, and should be staffed and resourced accordingly. The Ombudsman should take initiatives, not merely react to specific complaints received. He/she should exercise the power to initiate inquiries or investigations even if no specific complaint has been received. The Ombudsman should be responsible for compiling data on trends and patterns in complaints against the police, or accumulations of complaints against individual officers, and should work with the police to address issues emerging from this data. He/she should have a dynamic cooperative relationship with both the police and the Policing Board, as well as other bodies involved in community safety issues. He/she should exercise the right to investigate and comment on police policies and practices, where these are perceived to give rise to difficulties, even if the conduct of individual officers may not itself be culpable, and should draw any such observations to the attention of the Chief Constable and the Policing Board. The Ombudsman should have access to all past reports on the RUC. [para. 6.41]
39
New legislation on covert policing should be fully compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights and should have the same application in Northern Ireland as in the rest of the United Kingdom. [para. 6.43]
40
There should be a commissioner for covert law enforcement in Northern Ireland. [para. 6.44]
41
There should be a complaints tribunal, comprising senior members of the legal profession, with full powers to investigate cases referred to it (either directly or through the Police Ombudsman) involving covert law enforcement operations. [para. 6.45]
42
There should be a substantial strengthening of financial accountability, including: a fully costed Annual Policing Plan; a strong audit department within the Policing Board, staffed by experts in budgeting, financial management and value for money programmes; and more systematic use of the Audit Office to study police resource management, either at the behest of the Policing Board or on its own initiative. [para. 6.46]
43
The Chief Constable should be designated a sub accounting officer, in addition to the Chief Executive of the Policing Board, so that either or both may be called, together with the Permanent Under Secretary as principal accounting officer, to give evidence to the Public Accounts Committee. [para. 6.47]
Policing with the Community
44
Policing with the community should be the core function of the police service and the core function of every police station. [para. 7.9]
45
Every neighbourhood (or rural area) should have a dedicated policing team with lead responsibility for policing its area. [para. 7.10]
46
Members of the policing team should serve at least three and preferably five years in the same neighbourhood. They should wear their names clearly displayed on their uniforms, and their uniforms should also bear the name of the locality for which they are responsible. [para. 7.11]
47
All probationary police officers should undertake the operational phases of their probationary training doing team policing in the community. [para. 7.12]
48
Where practicable, policing teams should patrol on foot. [para. 7.13]
49
Neighbourhood policing teams should be empowered to determine their own local priorities and set their own objectives, within the overall Annual Policing Plan and in consultation with community representatives. [para. 7.14]
50
The Northern Ireland police should, both at a service-wide level and at patrol team level, conduct crime pattern and complaint pattern analysis to provide an information-led, problem-solving approach to policing. All police officers should be instructed in problem-solving techniques and encouraged to address the causes of problems as well as the consequences (the priority being to train beat managers and their teams); and they should be regularly appraised as to their performance in doing so. [para. 7.16]
51
DPPB members and other community leaders should be able to attend police training courses in problem-solving techniques. [para. 7.17]
Policing in a Peaceful Society
52
Police stations built from now on should have, so far as possible, the appearance of ordinary buildings; they should have low perimeter walls, and be clearly visible from the street; but they should have security features, which may be activated or reinforced as necessary. [para. 8.5]
53
Existing police stations should – subject to the security situation in their areas and to health and safety considerations – be progressively made less forbidding in appearance, more accessible to public callers and more congenial for those working in them. The public reception areas inside police stations should be made more welcoming, and civilian receptionists could replace police officers. [para. 8.6]
54
District police commanders should have discretion to decide in consultation with their local community how best to balance their resources between static posts and mobile patrols. [para. 8.7]
55
Police cars should continue to be substituted as patrol vehicles in place of armoured Landrovers, and the use of armoured Landrovers should be limited to threatening situations. [para. 8.8]
56
As soon as possible (that is, as soon as the incidence of deployment ceases to be regular) armoured Landrovers should be moved to depots, to be kept in reserve for use in public order policing for as long as this contingency may be required. [para. 8.9]
57
The word "Police" should be painted onto the sides of all Landrovers. [para. 8.10]
58
The role of the army should continue to be reduced, as quickly as the security situation will allow, so that the police can patrol all parts of Northern Ireland without military support. [para. 8.11]
59
For as long as the prospect remains of substantial public order policing demands on the scale seen at Drumcree in recent years, the army should retain the capacity to provide support for the police in meeting those demands. [para. 8.12]
60
Provided the threat of terrorism in Northern Ireland diminishes to the point where no additional special powers are necessary to combat it, legislation against terrorism should be the same in Northern Ireland as in the rest of the United Kingdom. [para. 8.14]
61
In the meantime, with immediate effect, records should be kept of all stops and searches and other such actions taken under emergency powers. [para. 8.14]
62
The three holding centres at Castlereagh, Gough barracks and Strand Road should be closed forthwith and all suspects should in future be detained in custody suites based in police stations. [para. 8.15]
63
Video recording should be introduced into the PACE custody suites. [para. 8.16]
64
Responsibility for inspecting all custody and interrogation suites should rest with the Policing Board, and Lay Visitors should be empowered not only to inspect the conditions of detention (as at present), but also to observe interviews on camera subject to the consent of the detainee (as is the case for cell visits). [para. 8.16]
65
The question of moving towards the desired objective of a routinely unarmed police service should be periodically reviewed in the light of developments in the security environment. [para. 8.19]
Public Order Policing
66
The Northern Ireland police should have the capacity within its own establishment to deal with public order emergencies without help from other police services and without more than the present level of support from the army. [para. 9.6]
67
It should be a condition for the approval of a parade that the organizers should provide their own marshals, and the organizers and the police should work together to plan the policing of such events. This should involve as appropriate the representatives of the neighbourhoods involved in the parade route. [para. 9.9]
68
Marshal training should be further developed, with an appropriate qualification on successful completion of the training. All parades should be marshalled and, as soon as practicable, it should be a requirement that all potentially contentious parades requiring a decision or determination by the Parades Commission should be marshalled by qualified personnel. [para. 9.10]
69
An immediate and substantial investment should be made in a research programme to find an acceptable, effective and less potentially lethal alternative to the Plastic Baton Round (PBR). [para. 9.15]
70
The police should be equipped with a broader range of public order equipment than the RUC currently possess, so that a commander has a number of options at his/her disposal which might reduce reliance on, or defer resort to, the PBR. [para. 9.16]
71
The use of PBRs should be subject to the same procedures for deployment, use and reporting as apply in the rest of the United Kingdom. Their use should be confined to the smallest necessary number of specially trained officers, who should be trained to think of the weapon in the same way as they would think of a firearm, that is as a weapon which is potentially lethal. Use of PBRs should in the first instance require the authorisation of a district commander. This should be justified in a report to the Policing Board, which should be copied to the Police Ombudsman. Wherever possible, video camera recordings should be made of incidents in which the use of PBRs is authorised. [para. 9.17]
72
Officers’ identification numbers should be clearly visible on their protective clothing, just as they should be on regular uniforms. [para. 9.18]
73
The Policing Board and, as appropriate, the Police Ombudsman should actively monitor police performance in public order situations, and if necessary seek reports from the Chief Constable and follow up those reports if they wish. [para. 9.19]
74
Guidance governing the deployment and use of PBRs should be soundly based in law, clearly expressed and readily available as public documents. [para. 9.20]
Management and Personnel
75
The Northern Ireland police leadership team should include specialists in change management. These may be either civilians or police officers, preferably both. The leadership team should produce a programme for change, to be presented to the Policing Board and reviewed periodically by the Board. The efficiency and effectiveness of each chief officer should be judged on the basis of, among other things, their capacity to introduce and adapt to change. [para. 10.3]
76
District commanders should have fully devolved authority over the deployment of personnel (officer and civilian) within their command, devolved budgets (including salary budgets), authority to purchase a range of goods and services, and to finance local policing initiatives. They should reach service level agreements with all headquarter support departments. [para. 10.7]
77
It should be a high priority of management to ensure that the appraisal system is fully effective. This system should be used as part of the promotion and selection process. An officer’s capacity for change should be assessed and should also be taken into account in the promotion and selection process. [para. 10.10]
78
District commanders should be required regularly to account to their senior officers for the patterns of crime and police activity in their district and to explain how they propose to address their districts’ problems. [para. 10.11]
79
An automated trend identification system for complaints should be introduced. [para. 10.12]
80
The use of trend information should be followed up by management, and as appropriate by the department responsible for discipline, and guidance should be drawn up to help managers use this information effectively. [para. 10.13]
81
Police managers should use random checks as a way to monitor the behaviour of their officers in dealings with the public and their integrity. [para. 10.14]
82
Police management should use all the tools at its disposal, including when necessary the administrative dismissal process, to ensure that high professional and ethical standards are consistently met. [para. 10.15]
83
There should be a tenure policy, so that officers do not have inordinately long postings in any specialist area of the police. [para. 10.16]
84
Officers injured on duty should be treated as a separate category for sickness recording purposes. [para. 10.17]
85
A new policy should be formulated for the management of long-term sickness absence, incorporating appropriate arrangements for medical retirement, career counselling and welfare support. A system of rewards, as well as sanctions, should be introduced as part of the sickness management policy. [para. 10.19]
86
There should be a more detailed review of sickness absence, to establish underlying causes and to make recommendations to address them. [para. 10.19]
87
A substantial fund should be set up to help injured police officers, injured retired officers and their families, as well as police widows. [para. 10.20]
88
The Widows Association should be given an office in police premises, free of charge, and a regular source of finance adequate to run their organization. [para. 10.21]
89
The Assistant Chief Constables currently responsible for support services should be replaced by two civilian Assistant Chief Officers, one responsible for personnel issues and one for finance and administration. [para. 10.22]
90
There should be a rigorous programme of civilianisation of jobs which do not require police powers, training or experience, exceptions being made only when it can be demonstrated that there is a good reason for a police officer to occupy the position. [para. 10.23]
91
The Policing Board and the police service should initiate a review of police support services with a view to contracting out those services where this will enhance the efficient management of resources. Consideration should be given to allowing "management buy-outs" of support services by police officers or civilian employees interested in continuing to provide those services as a private sector company, and in such cases management buy-out contractors should be offered a secure contract for at least three years to enable them to establish themselves before having to tender for renewal. [para. 10.25]
92
The police should commission a comprehensive audit of the whole police estate, to include outside experts, and develop a strategy for achieving an effective and efficient estate to meet the objectives for policing as outlined in this report. [para. 10.28]
Information Technology
93
There should be an urgent, independent, and in-depth strategic review of the use of information technology (IT) in policing. It should benchmark the Northern Ireland police against police services in the rest of the world and devise a properly resourced strategy that places them at the forefront of law enforcement technology within 3 to 5 years. It should be validated by independent assessment. The strategy should deliver fully integrated technology systems that are readily accessible to all staff, and should take advantage of the best analytical and communications systems currently available. Users of the technology should play a key part in devising the strategy, and in assessing its implementation. [para. 11.13]
Structure of the Police Service
94
There should be one district command for each District Council area. [para. 12.4]
95
In general, each district command should be headed by a Superintendent and resourced sufficiently to be self-contained for day-to-day policing purposes and capable of marshalling strength to cope with most unexpected demands. However, in the districts with small populations the commander should be a Chief Inspector, and the districts should draw on assistance from larger neighbouring district commands for functions in which it is not feasible for a small command to be self-sufficient. [para. 12.5]
96
The divisional layer of management and the regional headquarters should be removed, and there should be a direct reporting line from each district commander to the appropriate Assistant Chief Constable at central police headquarters. District commanders in smaller council areas, whatever their rank, should have such a direct reporting line, reflecting the accountability arrangements we have recommended. There should be much greater delegation of decision-making authority to district commanders than is the case now with sub-divisional commanders, including control over a devolved budget and all police resources in their district. [para. 12.6]
97
There should be a slimmer structure at police headquarters – one that reflects the shift of focus towards community policing and the delegation of responsibility to district commanders, and permits a more rigorous and strategic approach to management. There should be no more than one Deputy Chief Constable. The number of Assistant Chief Officers should be reduced to six from the present twelve. The position of "Deputy Assistant Chief Constable" should be deleted forthwith. The rank of Chief Superintendent should be phased out. [para. 12.9]
98
Special Branch and Crime Branch should be brought together under the command of a single Assistant Chief Constable. [para. 12.12]
99
There should be a substantial reduction in the number of officers engaged in security work in the new, amalgamated command. [para. 12.13]
100
Security officers should be required to keep their district commanders well briefed on security activities in their districts, and district commanders should be fully consulted before security operations are undertaken in their district. [para. 12.14]
101
The support units of Special Branch should be amalgamated into the wider police service. [para. 12.15]
102
Officers should not spend such long periods in security work as has been common in the past. [para 12.16]
103
The future police service should not include a Full Time Reserve. [para. 12.17]
104
There should be an enlarged Part Time Reserve of up to 2,500 officers, the additional recruits to come from those areas in which there are currently very few reservists or none at all. [para. 12.18]
Size of the Police Service
105
Provided the peace process does not collapse and the security situation does not deteriorate significantly from the situation pertaining at present, the approximate size of the police service over the next ten years should be 7,500 full time officers. [para. 13.9]
106
The early retirement or severance package offered to regular officers and full time reservists aged 50 or above should include a generous lump sum payment according to length of service, pension enhancement of up to five years, early payment of pension commutation entitlement and payment in lieu of pension until pensionable age is reached. Full time reservists should be treated as far as possible in the same way as regular officers. [para. 13.12]
107
Regular officers with more than five years’ service and all full time reservists, leaving the police service before the age of 50, should receive a substantial lump sum payment. [para. 13.13]
108
The Training and Employment Agency should develop measures for police officers (and civilians) seeking other employment, in consultation with police management and the staff associations. The Police Retraining and Rehabilitation Trust should have a role in this programme, and should have enhanced staffing and funding to enable it to deal with a substantially larger workload. [para. 13.17]
109
Police recruiting agencies in Great Britain should take full account of the policing experience of former RUC reservists in considering applications for employment in police services in Great Britain. [para. 13.19]
110
The British government should offer former reservists the opportunity to participate in British policing contingents in United Nations peacekeeping operations. [para. 13.19]
Composition and Recruitment of the Police Service
111
The Northern Ireland Civil Service management should facilitate transfers of civilian members of the police service to other Northern Ireland departments and should cooperate with the Policing Board and the Chief Constable in achieving a balanced and representative civilian workforce. [para. 14.16]
112
Every effort should be made to ensure that the composition of the staff of the Policing Board, the NIO Police Division (or any successor body), and the office of the Police Ombudsman should be broadly reflective of the population of Northern Ireland as a whole, particularly in terms of political/religious tradition and gender. [para. 14.17]
113
All community leaders, including political party leaders and local councillors, bishops and priests, schoolteachers and sports authorities, should take steps to remove all discouragements to members of their communities applying to join the police, and make it a priority to encourage them to apply. [para. 15.2]
114
The Gaelic Athletic Association should repeal its rule 21, which prohibits members of the police in Northern Ireland from being members of the Association. [para. 15.2]
115
Liaison should be established between all schools and universities and the police service in Northern Ireland immediately, and work experience attachments and familiarisation days should be organized with active support and encouragement from community leaders and teachers. [para. 15.4]
116
Provided there is active support and encouragement from local political and community leaders, pilot police cadet schemes should be set up. [para. 15.6]
117
The police should contract out the recruitment of both police officers and civilians into the police service. There should be lay involvement, including community representatives, on recruitment panels. [para. 15.7]
118
The recruitment agency should advertise imaginatively and persistently, particularly in places likely to reach groups who are under-represented in the police. [para. 15.8]
119
The agency should advertise beyond Northern Ireland, in the rest of the United Kingdom and in the Republic of Ireland. [para. 15.8]
120
All candidates for the police service should continue to be required to reach a specified standard of merit in the selection procedure. Candidates reaching this standard should then enter a pool from which the required number of recruits can be drawn. [para. 15.9]
121
An equal number of Protestants and Catholics should be drawn from the pool of qualified candidates. [para. 15.10]
122
Priority should be given to creating opportunities for part time working and job-sharing, both for police officers and police service civilians, and career breaks should be introduced. [para. 15.11]
123
Child care facilities should be introduced where practicable, or child care vouchers and flexible shift arrangements offered. [para. 15.11]
124
The recruitment process should be reduced to no more than six months. [para. 15.12]
125
Young people should not be automatically disqualified from entry into the police service for relatively minor criminal offences, particularly if they have since had a number of years without further transgressions. The criteria on this aspect of eligibility should be the same as those in the rest of the United Kingdom. There should be a procedure for appeal to the Police Ombudsman against disqualification of candidates. [para. 15.13]
126
All officers – those now in service as well as all future recruits – should be obliged to register their interests and associations. The register should be held both by the police service and by the Police Ombudsman. [para. 15.16]
127
The recruitment agency should seek to identify Northern Ireland Catholic officers in other police services, including the Garda Siochana, contact them and encourage them – particularly those in more senior ranks – to apply for positions in the Northern Ireland police. [para. 15.17]
128
Lateral entry of experienced officers from other police services, and secondments or recruitments from non-police organizations should be actively encouraged. [para. 15.18]
Training, Education and Development
129
A training, education and development strategy should be put in place, both for recruit training and for in-service training, which is linked to the aims of this report and to the objectives and priorities set out in the policing plans. These plans should incorporate training and development requirements. [para. 16.4]
130
A total training and development budget should be established, covering all aspects of training, and this should be safeguarded against transfers to other sub-heads. [para. 16.5]
131
The Northern Ireland police should have a new purpose-built police college and the funding for it should be found in the next public spending round. [para. 16.6]
132
There should be service level agreements between police districts/departments and the police Training Branch setting out what the Branch is expected to deliver to the district or department concerned. [para. 16.8]
133
There should be a high degree of civilian input into the recruit training programme. The director of the training centre (and the new college when this is opened) should have both academic qualifications and management expertise. Civilian instructors should be employed, or brought in as necessary to conduct as many elements of the training programme as possible. Some modules of recruit training should be contracted out to universities and delivered on university premises, ideally together with non-police students. [para. 16.10]
134
Civilian recruits to the police service should also attend the police college, and do some of their training together with police officer recruits. [para. 16.11]
135
Recruits who do not already have degrees should be encouraged to acquire appropriate academic qualifications during the first two years of their career. Encouragement should be given to those officers who wish to go on to study for further relevant qualifications. [para. 16.12]
136
Attestation as a police officer should take place only upon successful completion of the recruit training course. A sufficiently rigorous standard should be required for success in that course; and completion of the course should be marked by a graduation ceremony. [para. 16.13]
137
The hours spent on drill should be considerably reduced. [para. 16.14]
138
Problem-solving and partnership approaches should be central to the recruit training course, and scenario exercises should be further developed as training tools. [para. 16.16]
139
Community awareness training for police recruits should be developed to include representatives of all the main political and religious traditions in Northern Ireland. Community awareness should not be seen as a stand-alone element of recruit training; it should be integrated into all aspects of training. [para. 16.17]
140
The Northern Ireland police should introduce a comprehensive tutor officer scheme. Tutor officers should be carefully selected, according to their commitment and adaptability to the new style of policing, and trained. [para. 16.18]
141
Every member of the police service should have, as soon as possible, a course on the impact on policing of the new constitutional arrangements for Northern Ireland, the new policing arrangements set out in this report, and the reforms of the criminal justice system. [para. 16.20]
142
As a matter of priority, all members of the police service should be instructed in the implications for policing of the Human Rights Act 1998, and the wider context of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [para. 16.21]
143
All police managers should have management training, as appropriate, and every manager should at some stage of his/her career do a management course in a non-police environment, such as a business school or university. Use should be made of management workshops, so that managers can discuss and develop with each other how best to reshape the police organization. [para. 16.22]
144
Every officer and civilian in the service should undergo adequate training in information technology. [para. 16.23]
145
Opportunities should be taken for joint training with civilian analysts, and members of other police services. [para. 16.23]
146
The Northern Ireland police should draw on the success of neighbourhood policing in such places as the Markets area of Belfast in developing a neighbourhood policing training programme for all members of the police service. Standard training for neighbourhood officers should include modules on such community problems as domestic violence, child abuse, rape, drugs and youth issues and this training should be updated as necessary. [para. 16.24]
147
The training curricula for the police service should be publicly available, and easily accessible, eg. on the Internet. [para. 16.25]
148
Some training sessions should be open to members of the public to attend, upon application, priority being given to members of the Policing Board or District Policing Partnership Boards, Lay Visitors, or other bodies, statutory or non-governmental, involved in working with the police. [para. 16.26]
149
The new police college should offer a pilot citizens course, to assess demand in Northern Ireland. [para. 16.26]
Culture, Ethos and Symbols
150
While the Royal Ulster Constabulary should not be disbanded, it should henceforth be named the Northern Ireland Police Service. [para. 17.6]
151
The Northern Ireland Police Service should adopt a new badge and symbols which are entirely free from any association with either the British or Irish states. [para. 17.6]
152
The Union flag should no longer be flown from police buildings. [para. 17.6]
153
On those occasions on which it is appropriate to fly a flag on police buildings, the flag flown should be that of the Northern Ireland Police Service and it, too, should be free from associations with the British or Irish states. [para. 17.6]
154
The colour of the current police uniform should be retained, but a new, more practical style of uniform should be provided to police officers. [para. 17.7]
155
Police memorials in police buildings should remain as they are and where they are. [para. 17.8]
156
The maintenance of a neutral working environment should become an assessed management responsibility at all levels of management. [para. 17.9]
Cooperation with other Police Services
157
The Northern Ireland police and the Garda Siochana should have written protocols covering key aspects of cooperation. [para. 18.7]
158
The present pattern of meetings between the police services in Northern Ireland and the Republic should be enhanced by an annual conference, designed to drive forward cooperation in areas of common concern. [para. 18.8]
159
There should be a programme of long-term personnel exchanges, such as fixed-term secondments, between the Northern Ireland police and the Garda, in specialist fields where cooperation between the two services is most needed, such as drugs, and in areas such as training. [para. 18.10]
160
Consideration should be given to posting liaison officers from each service to the central headquarters and/or border area headquarters of the other. [para. 18.10]
161
There should be structured cooperation between the two police services in training. [para. 18.11]
162
There should be joint disaster planning between the Northern Ireland police and the Garda Siochana and the plans should be tested by regular joint exercises. [para. 18.12]
163
Consideration should be given to establishing a provision for an immediate exchange of officers and pooling of investigative teams after major incidents with a substantial cross-border dimension, akin to the arrangements which exist between Kent and the police services of France and Belgium. [para. 18.13]
164
Every effort should be made to ensure that fast, effective and reliable communications are established between the Garda and the Northern Ireland police both through improved radio links and through compatible IT systems. [para. 18.14]
165
Joint database development should be pursued as a matter of priority in all the main areas of cross-border criminality, such as drugs, smuggling, vehicle theft and terrorism. [para. 18.15]
166
A determined effort should be made to develop exchanges, and long-term secondments, between the Northern Ireland police and police services in Great Britain. [para. 18.16]
167
There should be training exchanges and some joint training between the Northern Ireland police and police services in Great Britain. [para. 18.17]
168
Consideration should be given to structured links between the four principal police training establishments in the British Isles, namely Bramshill (England), Templemore (Republic of Ireland), Tulliallan (Scotland) and Garnerville or the proposed new police college in Northern Ireland. [para. 18.17]
169
International training exchanges should be further developed, focussing in particular on matters where the police in Northern Ireland need overseas police cooperation and on best practice developments in policing worldwide. There should be cooperation with other police services in the field of research. [para. 18.18]
170
The police should develop opportunities to provide more training for overseas police services in their areas of excellence. [para. 18.19]
171
The Northern Ireland police should be ready to participate in future United Nations peace-keeping operations. [para. 18.20]
172
An eminent person, from a country other than the United Kingdom or Ireland, should be appointed as soon as possible as an oversight commissioner with responsibility for supervising the implementation of our recommendations. [para. 19.4]
173
The government, the police service, and the Policing Board (and DPPBs) should provide the oversight commissioner with objectives (with timetables) covering their own responsibilities, and should report on the progress achieved at the periodic review meetings, and account for any failures to achieve objectives. [para. 19.5]
174
The commissioner should in turn report publicly after each review meeting on the progress achieved, together with his or her observations on the extent to which any failures or delays are the responsibility of the policing institutions themselves or due to matters beyond their control. [para. 19.5]
175
The oversight commissioner should be appointed for a term of five years. [para. 19.6]
Full Report: https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/police/patten/patten99.pdf
Source: Chris Patten
https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/police/patten/recommend.htm
1
There should be a comprehensive programme of action to focus policing in Northern Ireland on a human rights-based approach. [para. 4.6]
2
There should be a new oath, taken individually by all new and existing police officers, expressing an explicit commitment to upholding human rights. The text might be as follows –
"I hereby do solemnly and sincerely and truly declare and affirm that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of constable, and that in so doing I will act with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality, uphold fundamental human rights and accord equal respect to all individuals and to their traditions and beliefs." [para. 4.7]
3
A new Code of Ethics should replace the existing, largely procedural code, integrating the European Convention on Human Rights into police practice. Codes of practice on all aspects of policing, including covert law enforcement techniques, should be strictly in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights. [para. 4.8]
4
All police officers, and police civilians, should be trained (and updated as required) in the fundamental principles and standards of human rights and the practical implications for policing. The human rights dimension should be integrated into every module of police training. [para. 4.9]
5
Awareness of human rights issues and respect for human rights in the performance of duty should be an important element in the appraisal of individuals in the police service. [para. 4.10]
6
A lawyer with specific expertise in the field of human rights should be appointed to the staff of the police legal services. [para. 4.11]
7
The performance of the police service as a whole in respect of human rights, as in other respects, should be monitored closely by the Policing Board. [para. 4.12]
Accountability
8
An entirely new Policing Board should be created, to replace the present Police Authority. [para. 6.2]
9
The statutory primary function of the Policing Board should be to hold the Chief Constable and the police service publicly to account. [para. 6.3]
10
The Policing Board should set objectives and priorities for policing over a 3 to 5 year period, taking account of any longer term objectives or principles set by the Secretary of State or successor. It should then be responsible for adopting a 3 to 5 year strategy, prepared by the Chief Constable through a process of discussion with the Board, which should reflect the objectives and priorities set by the Board. [para. 6.5]
11
The Board should be responsible for adopting an Annual Policing Plan, developed by the Chief Constable, through a process of discussion with the Board, on the basis of objectives and priorities set by the Board, and within the agreed 3 to 5 year strategy. [para. 6.6]
12
The Board should be responsible for negotiating the annual policing budget with the Northern Ireland Office, or with the appropriate successor body after devolution of policing. It should then allocate the police service budget to the Chief Constable and monitor police performance against the budget. [para. 6.7]
13
The Board should monitor police performance against the Annual Policing Plan and the 3 – 5 year strategy. It should watch crime trends and patterns, and police performance in public order situations. It should also follow such things as recruitment patterns and trends, including fair employment and equal opportunities performance, and training needs. It should assess public satisfaction with the police service and, in liaison with the Police Ombudsman, patterns and trends in complaints against the police. [para. 6.8]
14
The Board should have the responsibility for appointing all chief officers and civilian equivalents and for determining the length of their contracts. All appointments should be subject to approval by the Secretary of State (and successor after devolution) and the Chief Constable should be consulted in relation to the appointment of subordinate chief officers and civilian equivalents. The Board should have the power to call upon the Chief Constable to retire in the interests of efficiency and effectiveness subject to the approval of the Secretary of State (and successor) and to the right to make representations as at present. Similarly, the Board should have the same power in relation to other chief officers and civilian equivalents exercisable subject to the approval of the Secretary of State (and successor) and to the same right to make representations and after consultation with the Chief Constable. The Secretary of State should have power to require the Policing Board to call upon the Chief Constable to retire on the same grounds but this power should be exercisable only after consultation with the Board and subject to the same right to make representations already referred to. Additionally, after devolution the relevant Northern Ireland minister should have power to call for the retirement of the Chief Constable on the same grounds but this should be subject to the agreement of the Policing Board and the approval of the Secretary of State with an equivalent right to make representations. The Board should be the disciplinary authority for chief officers and civilian equivalents. [para. 6.9]
15
The Policing Board should coordinate its work closely with other agencies whose work touches on public safety, including education, environment, economic development, housing and health authorities, as well as social services, youth services and the probation service, and with appropriate non-governmental organizations. [para. 6.10]
16
The Policing Board should have 19 members, 10 of whom should be Assembly members drawn from the parties that comprise the new Northern Ireland Executive, selected on the d’Hondt system, who should not at the same time hold ministerial office in the Executive. [para. 6.11]
17
The nine independent members of the Board should be selected from a range of different fields – including business, trade unions, voluntary organizations, community groups and the legal profession – with the aim of finding a group of individuals representative of the community as a whole, with the expertise both to set policing priorities and to probe and scrutinise different areas of police performance, from management of resources to the safeguarding of human rights. Their appointments should be for four years; but if it were necessary for the purpose of continuity to ensure that not all Board positions fell vacant at the same time as elections to the Assembly, some of these appointments could be for an initial period of two years. [para. 6.12]
18
The independent members should be appointed by the Secretary of State, in consultation with the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister, until such time as responsibility for policing is devolved, at which point the appointments should be made by the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister acting together. Until devolution, the Secretary of State should also determine the remuneration and expenses of Board members, in consultation with the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister. [para. 6.13]
19
A Board member of high quality and standing in the community should be appointed by the Secretary of State to be the first chairman of the Board, with the agreement of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister, for an initial term of four years. [para. 6.14]
20
Responsibility for policing should be devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive as soon as possible, except for matters of national security. [para. 6.15]
21
The powers of the Policing Board proposed in this report, in relation to both government (as now represented by the Secretary of State) and the Chief Constable, should in no way be diminished when the government role in the tripartite arrangement passes to the Northern Ireland Executive. [para. 6.15]
22
The provisions of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998 should be simplified so that the respective roles of the Secretary of State (or successor), the Policing Board and the Chief Constable are clear. [para. 6.16]
23
The provision, in Section 39 of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998, that the Secretary of State may issue guidance to the police as to the exercise of their functions, should be repealed. [para. 6.18]
24
The Chief Constable should be deemed to have operational responsibility for the exercise of his or her functions and the activities of the police officers and civilian staff under his or her direction and control. [para. 6.21]
25
The Policing Board should have the power to require the Chief Constable to report on any issue pertaining to the performance of his functions or those of the police service. The obligation to report should extend to explaining operational decisions. If there is a disagreement between the Board and the Chief Constable over whether it is appropriate for a report to be provided on a particular matter, it should be for the Chief Constable to refer the question to the Secretary of State for a decision as to whether the Board’s requirement should stand. [para. 6.22]
26
The Policing Board should have the power, subject only to the same limitation set out in paragraph 6.22, to follow up any report from the Chief Constable by initiating an inquiry into any aspect of the police service or police conduct. Depending on the circumstances, the Board should have the option to request the Police Ombudsman, the Inspectorate of Constabulary or the Audit Office to conduct or contribute to such an inquiry, or to use the Board’s own staff, or even private consultants for such a purpose. [para. 6.23]
27
Each District Council should establish a District Policing Partnership Board (DPPB), as a committee of the Council, with a majority elected membership, the remaining independent members to be selected by the Council with the agreement of the Policing Board. The chair of the DPPB should be held by an elected member, with rotation between parties from year to year. [para. 6.26]
28
The District Policing Partnership Board in Belfast should have four sub-groups, covering North, South, East and West Belfast. [para. 6.27]
29
There should be monthly meetings between the DPPB and the police District Commander, at which the police should present reports and answer questions and the Board should reflect community concerns and priorities to the police. The views expressed by DPPBs should be taken fully into account by the police and by the Policing Board in the formulation of policing plans and strategies at the central level. [para. 6.30]
30
The DPPB should submit an annual report to the District Council, and publish it. [para. 6.31]
31
The approved administration costs of the DPPB should attract a 75% grant from the Policing Board, the remaining 25% to be funded by the District Council. [para. 6.32]
32
District Councils should have the power to contribute an amount initially up to the equivalent of a rate of 3p in the pound towards the improved policing of the district, which could enable the DPPB to purchase additional services from the police or other statutory agencies, or from the private sector. [para. 6.33]
33
It should be the aim of every police beat manager to have a consultative forum in his or her patrol area. [para. 6.34]
34
The Policing Board should maintain regular contact with the DPPBs, through periodic meetings of chairpersons, annual conferences, seminars, training courses and by including them in the circulation of information. [para. 6.35]
35
The Policing Board should meet in public once a month, to receive a report from the Chief Constable. [para. 6.36]
36
District Policing Partnership Boards should meet in public once a month, and procedures should allow for members of the public to address questions to the Board and, through the chair, to the police. [para. 6.37]
37
The police service should take steps to improve its transparency. The presumption should be that everything should be available for public scrutiny unless it is in the public interest – not the police interest – to hold it back. [para. 6.38]
38
The Police Ombudsman should be, and be seen to be, an important institution in the governance of Northern Ireland, and should be staffed and resourced accordingly. The Ombudsman should take initiatives, not merely react to specific complaints received. He/she should exercise the power to initiate inquiries or investigations even if no specific complaint has been received. The Ombudsman should be responsible for compiling data on trends and patterns in complaints against the police, or accumulations of complaints against individual officers, and should work with the police to address issues emerging from this data. He/she should have a dynamic cooperative relationship with both the police and the Policing Board, as well as other bodies involved in community safety issues. He/she should exercise the right to investigate and comment on police policies and practices, where these are perceived to give rise to difficulties, even if the conduct of individual officers may not itself be culpable, and should draw any such observations to the attention of the Chief Constable and the Policing Board. The Ombudsman should have access to all past reports on the RUC. [para. 6.41]
39
New legislation on covert policing should be fully compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights and should have the same application in Northern Ireland as in the rest of the United Kingdom. [para. 6.43]
40
There should be a commissioner for covert law enforcement in Northern Ireland. [para. 6.44]
41
There should be a complaints tribunal, comprising senior members of the legal profession, with full powers to investigate cases referred to it (either directly or through the Police Ombudsman) involving covert law enforcement operations. [para. 6.45]
42
There should be a substantial strengthening of financial accountability, including: a fully costed Annual Policing Plan; a strong audit department within the Policing Board, staffed by experts in budgeting, financial management and value for money programmes; and more systematic use of the Audit Office to study police resource management, either at the behest of the Policing Board or on its own initiative. [para. 6.46]
43
The Chief Constable should be designated a sub accounting officer, in addition to the Chief Executive of the Policing Board, so that either or both may be called, together with the Permanent Under Secretary as principal accounting officer, to give evidence to the Public Accounts Committee. [para. 6.47]
Policing with the Community
44
Policing with the community should be the core function of the police service and the core function of every police station. [para. 7.9]
45
Every neighbourhood (or rural area) should have a dedicated policing team with lead responsibility for policing its area. [para. 7.10]
46
Members of the policing team should serve at least three and preferably five years in the same neighbourhood. They should wear their names clearly displayed on their uniforms, and their uniforms should also bear the name of the locality for which they are responsible. [para. 7.11]
47
All probationary police officers should undertake the operational phases of their probationary training doing team policing in the community. [para. 7.12]
48
Where practicable, policing teams should patrol on foot. [para. 7.13]
49
Neighbourhood policing teams should be empowered to determine their own local priorities and set their own objectives, within the overall Annual Policing Plan and in consultation with community representatives. [para. 7.14]
50
The Northern Ireland police should, both at a service-wide level and at patrol team level, conduct crime pattern and complaint pattern analysis to provide an information-led, problem-solving approach to policing. All police officers should be instructed in problem-solving techniques and encouraged to address the causes of problems as well as the consequences (the priority being to train beat managers and their teams); and they should be regularly appraised as to their performance in doing so. [para. 7.16]
51
DPPB members and other community leaders should be able to attend police training courses in problem-solving techniques. [para. 7.17]
Policing in a Peaceful Society
52
Police stations built from now on should have, so far as possible, the appearance of ordinary buildings; they should have low perimeter walls, and be clearly visible from the street; but they should have security features, which may be activated or reinforced as necessary. [para. 8.5]
53
Existing police stations should – subject to the security situation in their areas and to health and safety considerations – be progressively made less forbidding in appearance, more accessible to public callers and more congenial for those working in them. The public reception areas inside police stations should be made more welcoming, and civilian receptionists could replace police officers. [para. 8.6]
54
District police commanders should have discretion to decide in consultation with their local community how best to balance their resources between static posts and mobile patrols. [para. 8.7]
55
Police cars should continue to be substituted as patrol vehicles in place of armoured Landrovers, and the use of armoured Landrovers should be limited to threatening situations. [para. 8.8]
56
As soon as possible (that is, as soon as the incidence of deployment ceases to be regular) armoured Landrovers should be moved to depots, to be kept in reserve for use in public order policing for as long as this contingency may be required. [para. 8.9]
57
The word "Police" should be painted onto the sides of all Landrovers. [para. 8.10]
58
The role of the army should continue to be reduced, as quickly as the security situation will allow, so that the police can patrol all parts of Northern Ireland without military support. [para. 8.11]
59
For as long as the prospect remains of substantial public order policing demands on the scale seen at Drumcree in recent years, the army should retain the capacity to provide support for the police in meeting those demands. [para. 8.12]
60
Provided the threat of terrorism in Northern Ireland diminishes to the point where no additional special powers are necessary to combat it, legislation against terrorism should be the same in Northern Ireland as in the rest of the United Kingdom. [para. 8.14]
61
In the meantime, with immediate effect, records should be kept of all stops and searches and other such actions taken under emergency powers. [para. 8.14]
62
The three holding centres at Castlereagh, Gough barracks and Strand Road should be closed forthwith and all suspects should in future be detained in custody suites based in police stations. [para. 8.15]
63
Video recording should be introduced into the PACE custody suites. [para. 8.16]
64
Responsibility for inspecting all custody and interrogation suites should rest with the Policing Board, and Lay Visitors should be empowered not only to inspect the conditions of detention (as at present), but also to observe interviews on camera subject to the consent of the detainee (as is the case for cell visits). [para. 8.16]
65
The question of moving towards the desired objective of a routinely unarmed police service should be periodically reviewed in the light of developments in the security environment. [para. 8.19]
Public Order Policing
66
The Northern Ireland police should have the capacity within its own establishment to deal with public order emergencies without help from other police services and without more than the present level of support from the army. [para. 9.6]
67
It should be a condition for the approval of a parade that the organizers should provide their own marshals, and the organizers and the police should work together to plan the policing of such events. This should involve as appropriate the representatives of the neighbourhoods involved in the parade route. [para. 9.9]
68
Marshal training should be further developed, with an appropriate qualification on successful completion of the training. All parades should be marshalled and, as soon as practicable, it should be a requirement that all potentially contentious parades requiring a decision or determination by the Parades Commission should be marshalled by qualified personnel. [para. 9.10]
69
An immediate and substantial investment should be made in a research programme to find an acceptable, effective and less potentially lethal alternative to the Plastic Baton Round (PBR). [para. 9.15]
70
The police should be equipped with a broader range of public order equipment than the RUC currently possess, so that a commander has a number of options at his/her disposal which might reduce reliance on, or defer resort to, the PBR. [para. 9.16]
71
The use of PBRs should be subject to the same procedures for deployment, use and reporting as apply in the rest of the United Kingdom. Their use should be confined to the smallest necessary number of specially trained officers, who should be trained to think of the weapon in the same way as they would think of a firearm, that is as a weapon which is potentially lethal. Use of PBRs should in the first instance require the authorisation of a district commander. This should be justified in a report to the Policing Board, which should be copied to the Police Ombudsman. Wherever possible, video camera recordings should be made of incidents in which the use of PBRs is authorised. [para. 9.17]
72
Officers’ identification numbers should be clearly visible on their protective clothing, just as they should be on regular uniforms. [para. 9.18]
73
The Policing Board and, as appropriate, the Police Ombudsman should actively monitor police performance in public order situations, and if necessary seek reports from the Chief Constable and follow up those reports if they wish. [para. 9.19]
74
Guidance governing the deployment and use of PBRs should be soundly based in law, clearly expressed and readily available as public documents. [para. 9.20]
Management and Personnel
75
The Northern Ireland police leadership team should include specialists in change management. These may be either civilians or police officers, preferably both. The leadership team should produce a programme for change, to be presented to the Policing Board and reviewed periodically by the Board. The efficiency and effectiveness of each chief officer should be judged on the basis of, among other things, their capacity to introduce and adapt to change. [para. 10.3]
76
District commanders should have fully devolved authority over the deployment of personnel (officer and civilian) within their command, devolved budgets (including salary budgets), authority to purchase a range of goods and services, and to finance local policing initiatives. They should reach service level agreements with all headquarter support departments. [para. 10.7]
77
It should be a high priority of management to ensure that the appraisal system is fully effective. This system should be used as part of the promotion and selection process. An officer’s capacity for change should be assessed and should also be taken into account in the promotion and selection process. [para. 10.10]
78
District commanders should be required regularly to account to their senior officers for the patterns of crime and police activity in their district and to explain how they propose to address their districts’ problems. [para. 10.11]
79
An automated trend identification system for complaints should be introduced. [para. 10.12]
80
The use of trend information should be followed up by management, and as appropriate by the department responsible for discipline, and guidance should be drawn up to help managers use this information effectively. [para. 10.13]
81
Police managers should use random checks as a way to monitor the behaviour of their officers in dealings with the public and their integrity. [para. 10.14]
82
Police management should use all the tools at its disposal, including when necessary the administrative dismissal process, to ensure that high professional and ethical standards are consistently met. [para. 10.15]
83
There should be a tenure policy, so that officers do not have inordinately long postings in any specialist area of the police. [para. 10.16]
84
Officers injured on duty should be treated as a separate category for sickness recording purposes. [para. 10.17]
85
A new policy should be formulated for the management of long-term sickness absence, incorporating appropriate arrangements for medical retirement, career counselling and welfare support. A system of rewards, as well as sanctions, should be introduced as part of the sickness management policy. [para. 10.19]
86
There should be a more detailed review of sickness absence, to establish underlying causes and to make recommendations to address them. [para. 10.19]
87
A substantial fund should be set up to help injured police officers, injured retired officers and their families, as well as police widows. [para. 10.20]
88
The Widows Association should be given an office in police premises, free of charge, and a regular source of finance adequate to run their organization. [para. 10.21]
89
The Assistant Chief Constables currently responsible for support services should be replaced by two civilian Assistant Chief Officers, one responsible for personnel issues and one for finance and administration. [para. 10.22]
90
There should be a rigorous programme of civilianisation of jobs which do not require police powers, training or experience, exceptions being made only when it can be demonstrated that there is a good reason for a police officer to occupy the position. [para. 10.23]
91
The Policing Board and the police service should initiate a review of police support services with a view to contracting out those services where this will enhance the efficient management of resources. Consideration should be given to allowing "management buy-outs" of support services by police officers or civilian employees interested in continuing to provide those services as a private sector company, and in such cases management buy-out contractors should be offered a secure contract for at least three years to enable them to establish themselves before having to tender for renewal. [para. 10.25]
92
The police should commission a comprehensive audit of the whole police estate, to include outside experts, and develop a strategy for achieving an effective and efficient estate to meet the objectives for policing as outlined in this report. [para. 10.28]
Information Technology
93
There should be an urgent, independent, and in-depth strategic review of the use of information technology (IT) in policing. It should benchmark the Northern Ireland police against police services in the rest of the world and devise a properly resourced strategy that places them at the forefront of law enforcement technology within 3 to 5 years. It should be validated by independent assessment. The strategy should deliver fully integrated technology systems that are readily accessible to all staff, and should take advantage of the best analytical and communications systems currently available. Users of the technology should play a key part in devising the strategy, and in assessing its implementation. [para. 11.13]
Structure of the Police Service
94
There should be one district command for each District Council area. [para. 12.4]
95
In general, each district command should be headed by a Superintendent and resourced sufficiently to be self-contained for day-to-day policing purposes and capable of marshalling strength to cope with most unexpected demands. However, in the districts with small populations the commander should be a Chief Inspector, and the districts should draw on assistance from larger neighbouring district commands for functions in which it is not feasible for a small command to be self-sufficient. [para. 12.5]
96
The divisional layer of management and the regional headquarters should be removed, and there should be a direct reporting line from each district commander to the appropriate Assistant Chief Constable at central police headquarters. District commanders in smaller council areas, whatever their rank, should have such a direct reporting line, reflecting the accountability arrangements we have recommended. There should be much greater delegation of decision-making authority to district commanders than is the case now with sub-divisional commanders, including control over a devolved budget and all police resources in their district. [para. 12.6]
97
There should be a slimmer structure at police headquarters – one that reflects the shift of focus towards community policing and the delegation of responsibility to district commanders, and permits a more rigorous and strategic approach to management. There should be no more than one Deputy Chief Constable. The number of Assistant Chief Officers should be reduced to six from the present twelve. The position of "Deputy Assistant Chief Constable" should be deleted forthwith. The rank of Chief Superintendent should be phased out. [para. 12.9]
98
Special Branch and Crime Branch should be brought together under the command of a single Assistant Chief Constable. [para. 12.12]
99
There should be a substantial reduction in the number of officers engaged in security work in the new, amalgamated command. [para. 12.13]
100
Security officers should be required to keep their district commanders well briefed on security activities in their districts, and district commanders should be fully consulted before security operations are undertaken in their district. [para. 12.14]
101
The support units of Special Branch should be amalgamated into the wider police service. [para. 12.15]
102
Officers should not spend such long periods in security work as has been common in the past. [para 12.16]
103
The future police service should not include a Full Time Reserve. [para. 12.17]
104
There should be an enlarged Part Time Reserve of up to 2,500 officers, the additional recruits to come from those areas in which there are currently very few reservists or none at all. [para. 12.18]
Size of the Police Service
105
Provided the peace process does not collapse and the security situation does not deteriorate significantly from the situation pertaining at present, the approximate size of the police service over the next ten years should be 7,500 full time officers. [para. 13.9]
106
The early retirement or severance package offered to regular officers and full time reservists aged 50 or above should include a generous lump sum payment according to length of service, pension enhancement of up to five years, early payment of pension commutation entitlement and payment in lieu of pension until pensionable age is reached. Full time reservists should be treated as far as possible in the same way as regular officers. [para. 13.12]
107
Regular officers with more than five years’ service and all full time reservists, leaving the police service before the age of 50, should receive a substantial lump sum payment. [para. 13.13]
108
The Training and Employment Agency should develop measures for police officers (and civilians) seeking other employment, in consultation with police management and the staff associations. The Police Retraining and Rehabilitation Trust should have a role in this programme, and should have enhanced staffing and funding to enable it to deal with a substantially larger workload. [para. 13.17]
109
Police recruiting agencies in Great Britain should take full account of the policing experience of former RUC reservists in considering applications for employment in police services in Great Britain. [para. 13.19]
110
The British government should offer former reservists the opportunity to participate in British policing contingents in United Nations peacekeeping operations. [para. 13.19]
Composition and Recruitment of the Police Service
111
The Northern Ireland Civil Service management should facilitate transfers of civilian members of the police service to other Northern Ireland departments and should cooperate with the Policing Board and the Chief Constable in achieving a balanced and representative civilian workforce. [para. 14.16]
112
Every effort should be made to ensure that the composition of the staff of the Policing Board, the NIO Police Division (or any successor body), and the office of the Police Ombudsman should be broadly reflective of the population of Northern Ireland as a whole, particularly in terms of political/religious tradition and gender. [para. 14.17]
113
All community leaders, including political party leaders and local councillors, bishops and priests, schoolteachers and sports authorities, should take steps to remove all discouragements to members of their communities applying to join the police, and make it a priority to encourage them to apply. [para. 15.2]
114
The Gaelic Athletic Association should repeal its rule 21, which prohibits members of the police in Northern Ireland from being members of the Association. [para. 15.2]
115
Liaison should be established between all schools and universities and the police service in Northern Ireland immediately, and work experience attachments and familiarisation days should be organized with active support and encouragement from community leaders and teachers. [para. 15.4]
116
Provided there is active support and encouragement from local political and community leaders, pilot police cadet schemes should be set up. [para. 15.6]
117
The police should contract out the recruitment of both police officers and civilians into the police service. There should be lay involvement, including community representatives, on recruitment panels. [para. 15.7]
118
The recruitment agency should advertise imaginatively and persistently, particularly in places likely to reach groups who are under-represented in the police. [para. 15.8]
119
The agency should advertise beyond Northern Ireland, in the rest of the United Kingdom and in the Republic of Ireland. [para. 15.8]
120
All candidates for the police service should continue to be required to reach a specified standard of merit in the selection procedure. Candidates reaching this standard should then enter a pool from which the required number of recruits can be drawn. [para. 15.9]
121
An equal number of Protestants and Catholics should be drawn from the pool of qualified candidates. [para. 15.10]
122
Priority should be given to creating opportunities for part time working and job-sharing, both for police officers and police service civilians, and career breaks should be introduced. [para. 15.11]
123
Child care facilities should be introduced where practicable, or child care vouchers and flexible shift arrangements offered. [para. 15.11]
124
The recruitment process should be reduced to no more than six months. [para. 15.12]
125
Young people should not be automatically disqualified from entry into the police service for relatively minor criminal offences, particularly if they have since had a number of years without further transgressions. The criteria on this aspect of eligibility should be the same as those in the rest of the United Kingdom. There should be a procedure for appeal to the Police Ombudsman against disqualification of candidates. [para. 15.13]
126
All officers – those now in service as well as all future recruits – should be obliged to register their interests and associations. The register should be held both by the police service and by the Police Ombudsman. [para. 15.16]
127
The recruitment agency should seek to identify Northern Ireland Catholic officers in other police services, including the Garda Siochana, contact them and encourage them – particularly those in more senior ranks – to apply for positions in the Northern Ireland police. [para. 15.17]
128
Lateral entry of experienced officers from other police services, and secondments or recruitments from non-police organizations should be actively encouraged. [para. 15.18]
Training, Education and Development
129
A training, education and development strategy should be put in place, both for recruit training and for in-service training, which is linked to the aims of this report and to the objectives and priorities set out in the policing plans. These plans should incorporate training and development requirements. [para. 16.4]
130
A total training and development budget should be established, covering all aspects of training, and this should be safeguarded against transfers to other sub-heads. [para. 16.5]
131
The Northern Ireland police should have a new purpose-built police college and the funding for it should be found in the next public spending round. [para. 16.6]
132
There should be service level agreements between police districts/departments and the police Training Branch setting out what the Branch is expected to deliver to the district or department concerned. [para. 16.8]
133
There should be a high degree of civilian input into the recruit training programme. The director of the training centre (and the new college when this is opened) should have both academic qualifications and management expertise. Civilian instructors should be employed, or brought in as necessary to conduct as many elements of the training programme as possible. Some modules of recruit training should be contracted out to universities and delivered on university premises, ideally together with non-police students. [para. 16.10]
134
Civilian recruits to the police service should also attend the police college, and do some of their training together with police officer recruits. [para. 16.11]
135
Recruits who do not already have degrees should be encouraged to acquire appropriate academic qualifications during the first two years of their career. Encouragement should be given to those officers who wish to go on to study for further relevant qualifications. [para. 16.12]
136
Attestation as a police officer should take place only upon successful completion of the recruit training course. A sufficiently rigorous standard should be required for success in that course; and completion of the course should be marked by a graduation ceremony. [para. 16.13]
137
The hours spent on drill should be considerably reduced. [para. 16.14]
138
Problem-solving and partnership approaches should be central to the recruit training course, and scenario exercises should be further developed as training tools. [para. 16.16]
139
Community awareness training for police recruits should be developed to include representatives of all the main political and religious traditions in Northern Ireland. Community awareness should not be seen as a stand-alone element of recruit training; it should be integrated into all aspects of training. [para. 16.17]
140
The Northern Ireland police should introduce a comprehensive tutor officer scheme. Tutor officers should be carefully selected, according to their commitment and adaptability to the new style of policing, and trained. [para. 16.18]
141
Every member of the police service should have, as soon as possible, a course on the impact on policing of the new constitutional arrangements for Northern Ireland, the new policing arrangements set out in this report, and the reforms of the criminal justice system. [para. 16.20]
142
As a matter of priority, all members of the police service should be instructed in the implications for policing of the Human Rights Act 1998, and the wider context of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [para. 16.21]
143
All police managers should have management training, as appropriate, and every manager should at some stage of his/her career do a management course in a non-police environment, such as a business school or university. Use should be made of management workshops, so that managers can discuss and develop with each other how best to reshape the police organization. [para. 16.22]
144
Every officer and civilian in the service should undergo adequate training in information technology. [para. 16.23]
145
Opportunities should be taken for joint training with civilian analysts, and members of other police services. [para. 16.23]
146
The Northern Ireland police should draw on the success of neighbourhood policing in such places as the Markets area of Belfast in developing a neighbourhood policing training programme for all members of the police service. Standard training for neighbourhood officers should include modules on such community problems as domestic violence, child abuse, rape, drugs and youth issues and this training should be updated as necessary. [para. 16.24]
147
The training curricula for the police service should be publicly available, and easily accessible, eg. on the Internet. [para. 16.25]
148
Some training sessions should be open to members of the public to attend, upon application, priority being given to members of the Policing Board or District Policing Partnership Boards, Lay Visitors, or other bodies, statutory or non-governmental, involved in working with the police. [para. 16.26]
149
The new police college should offer a pilot citizens course, to assess demand in Northern Ireland. [para. 16.26]
Culture, Ethos and Symbols
150
While the Royal Ulster Constabulary should not be disbanded, it should henceforth be named the Northern Ireland Police Service. [para. 17.6]
151
The Northern Ireland Police Service should adopt a new badge and symbols which are entirely free from any association with either the British or Irish states. [para. 17.6]
152
The Union flag should no longer be flown from police buildings. [para. 17.6]
153
On those occasions on which it is appropriate to fly a flag on police buildings, the flag flown should be that of the Northern Ireland Police Service and it, too, should be free from associations with the British or Irish states. [para. 17.6]
154
The colour of the current police uniform should be retained, but a new, more practical style of uniform should be provided to police officers. [para. 17.7]
155
Police memorials in police buildings should remain as they are and where they are. [para. 17.8]
156
The maintenance of a neutral working environment should become an assessed management responsibility at all levels of management. [para. 17.9]
Cooperation with other Police Services
157
The Northern Ireland police and the Garda Siochana should have written protocols covering key aspects of cooperation. [para. 18.7]
158
The present pattern of meetings between the police services in Northern Ireland and the Republic should be enhanced by an annual conference, designed to drive forward cooperation in areas of common concern. [para. 18.8]
159
There should be a programme of long-term personnel exchanges, such as fixed-term secondments, between the Northern Ireland police and the Garda, in specialist fields where cooperation between the two services is most needed, such as drugs, and in areas such as training. [para. 18.10]
160
Consideration should be given to posting liaison officers from each service to the central headquarters and/or border area headquarters of the other. [para. 18.10]
161
There should be structured cooperation between the two police services in training. [para. 18.11]
162
There should be joint disaster planning between the Northern Ireland police and the Garda Siochana and the plans should be tested by regular joint exercises. [para. 18.12]
163
Consideration should be given to establishing a provision for an immediate exchange of officers and pooling of investigative teams after major incidents with a substantial cross-border dimension, akin to the arrangements which exist between Kent and the police services of France and Belgium. [para. 18.13]
164
Every effort should be made to ensure that fast, effective and reliable communications are established between the Garda and the Northern Ireland police both through improved radio links and through compatible IT systems. [para. 18.14]
165
Joint database development should be pursued as a matter of priority in all the main areas of cross-border criminality, such as drugs, smuggling, vehicle theft and terrorism. [para. 18.15]
166
A determined effort should be made to develop exchanges, and long-term secondments, between the Northern Ireland police and police services in Great Britain. [para. 18.16]
167
There should be training exchanges and some joint training between the Northern Ireland police and police services in Great Britain. [para. 18.17]
168
Consideration should be given to structured links between the four principal police training establishments in the British Isles, namely Bramshill (England), Templemore (Republic of Ireland), Tulliallan (Scotland) and Garnerville or the proposed new police college in Northern Ireland. [para. 18.17]
169
International training exchanges should be further developed, focussing in particular on matters where the police in Northern Ireland need overseas police cooperation and on best practice developments in policing worldwide. There should be cooperation with other police services in the field of research. [para. 18.18]
170
The police should develop opportunities to provide more training for overseas police services in their areas of excellence. [para. 18.19]
171
The Northern Ireland police should be ready to participate in future United Nations peace-keeping operations. [para. 18.20]
172
An eminent person, from a country other than the United Kingdom or Ireland, should be appointed as soon as possible as an oversight commissioner with responsibility for supervising the implementation of our recommendations. [para. 19.4]
173
The government, the police service, and the Policing Board (and DPPBs) should provide the oversight commissioner with objectives (with timetables) covering their own responsibilities, and should report on the progress achieved at the periodic review meetings, and account for any failures to achieve objectives. [para. 19.5]
174
The commissioner should in turn report publicly after each review meeting on the progress achieved, together with his or her observations on the extent to which any failures or delays are the responsibility of the policing institutions themselves or due to matters beyond their control. [para. 19.5]
175
The oversight commissioner should be appointed for a term of five years. [para. 19.6]
Full Report: https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/police/patten/patten99.pdf
Source: Chris Patten
https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/police/patten/recommend.htm
彭定康怎樣解開北愛爾蘭三十年的警民仇恨之結？
自林鄭引用緊急法訂立蒙面法後，一向言談從容婉轉的彭定康接受 Sky News 訪問少有地表現憤怒，直刀直入地怒斥林鄭引用緊急法的行為是「Crazy」﹑「Absolutely madness」（看過不少彭定康的訪談從未見過他這般生氣）。整件事的笑位的是林鄭居然在記者會上質疑彭定康，反問如果類似事件發生在自己國家，他會如何處理...... (條友真係唔識架喎)
事實是，彭定康作為1998年成立的北愛爾蘭治安獨立委員會主席，成功化解了北愛爾蘭三十年來的警民仇恨。1999年出版，正式名字為《新開始：北愛爾蘭的治安》的《彭定康報告》成為了世界上處理類似衝突的藍本。林鄭此話一出立即被全城恥笑。
彭定康回憶錄裡面憶述關於自己在北愛爾蘭工作的章節名為「Crazy Irish Knots」，形容北愛問題像死結一般。三十年的衝突除了涉及主權﹑種族﹑階級與宗教矛盾外，其中一個激起長年衝突的原因就是警察濫暴問題。當年的北愛有四成天主教徒人口，而北愛皇家阿爾斯特警察(Royal Ulster Constabulary) 卻只有8％ 天主教徒，新教徒佔警隊大多數。皇家阿爾斯特警察歧視信奉天生教的愛爾蘭人，而且對不少共和派（主張愛爾蘭島統一）天主教徒進行濫殺及酷刑。激發起實行恐佈主義的準軍事組織愛爾蘭共和軍崛起。
1998年北愛問題稍為平靜之際，北愛爾蘭自治政府、愛爾蘭政府和英國政府簽訂《貝爾法斯特協議》，展開了北愛和平進程。各方協議需要處理的其中一大難題就是臭名遠播的皇家阿爾斯特警察問題，親愛的共和派要求解散警隊，親英的保皇派則要求保留皇家阿爾斯特警察，這個問題被當時被認定為無法解開的結。
就在彭定康離任港督回到英國的幾個月後，時任北愛爾蘭內閣大臣 Mo Mowlam 邀請他成為北愛爾蘭治安獨立委員會主席。曾為北愛爾蘭次長以及作為愛爾蘭裔天主教徒的身份讓彭定康比更多英國政治家更合適擔任此角色。
彭定康如何解開這個死結？
彭定康委員會成立後，除了翻查多年來警民衝突的資料，亦開始邀請公眾投寄意見書及問卷﹑舉行大量焦點小組(Focus group) ﹑會世界各地的警察專家會面，並於北愛爾蘭不同地方舉行公眾對話會。
彭定康回憶起當時準備到一個叫 Portadown 的小鎮出席對話會前夕，小鎮附近遭受愛爾蘭共和軍的炸彈襲擊，造成31人死亡。但那次對話會依然吸引約一萬人出席，約一千人發言。而在這個危險的環境下，彭定康與其他委員會成員反而決定放棄保安措施。這是因為他們認為在市民與警察的嚴重對立下，警察在會上的存在會令市民無法暢所欲言。
在調查中，彭定康認為警隊要成功改革，需要經得起五大測試：
1. 未來的警隊能否有效用且效率高的治安工作？
2. 他們能否提供不偏不倚的治安工作，且不受黨派控制？
3. 他們能否對法律及社群問責？
4. 他們能否讓警察在社會上變得更有代表性？
5. 報告的建議能否維護所有人的人權與尊嚴？
經過一年的調查，彭定康認為北愛的警隊無須砍掉重練，但需進行大量沿革，並於1999年發表報告提出175項改革建議，其中包括在報告發表後的十年內，將警隊召募比例上天主教徒與新教徒各佔一半﹑將皇家阿爾斯特警察改名為北愛爾蘭警察 (Police Service Northern Ireland)，以去除任何英國與愛爾蘭的政治色彩，警署不再升起英國國旗﹑將警隊管理獨立於行政部門﹑大規模削減警隊編制等等。報告發表後初期，各界仍有不同聲音，但這份報告於後來成功平息了共和派與保皇派的嚴重分歧。報告至今二十年，北愛人對警隊的信任比例由當時的谷底上升至81％。彭定康化腐朽為神奇。
在整個調查研究中，彭定康抱著一些信念，認為警隊必須遠離政治角力與暴力的核心，以及不要逃避嘗試以溫和的手法去做對的事。
歷史告訴我們，社會上一些複雜難解的死結也有解開的可能。問題只在於掌控權力的人有沒有決心與氣度去嘗試把出軌的列車返回正軌。明顯地，林鄭兩樣特質也沒有。面對警員失控﹑警隊濫暴﹑學生站出來指證警察非禮﹑被捕人士的全裸屍體浮於海面等等幾個月前無法想像的可怕荒謬事件，她仍然無動於衷，並只懂將情況火上加油。加上一堆堆令人傻眼的失常行徑，例如邀請美國參議員到港會談卻臨時失約。
很快，香港就只剩兩條出路：變成另一個北愛爾蘭或者另一個新疆。
真正的千古罪人不是彭定康，而是林鄭月娥。
Source: Fungy Leely 豐吉‧莉莉
https://medium.com/@fungyleely/%E5%BD%AD%E5%AE%9A%E5%BA%B7%E6%80%8E%E6%A8%A3%E8%A7%A3%E9%96%8B%E5%8C%97%E6%84%9B%E7%88%BE%E8%98%AD%E4%B8%89%E5%8D%81%E5%B9%B4%E7%9A%84%E8%AD%A6%E6%B0%91%E4%BB%87%E6%81%A8%E4%B9%8B%E7%B5%90-7c5f3771c569
事實是，彭定康作為1998年成立的北愛爾蘭治安獨立委員會主席，成功化解了北愛爾蘭三十年來的警民仇恨。1999年出版，正式名字為《新開始：北愛爾蘭的治安》的《彭定康報告》成為了世界上處理類似衝突的藍本。林鄭此話一出立即被全城恥笑。
彭定康回憶錄裡面憶述關於自己在北愛爾蘭工作的章節名為「Crazy Irish Knots」，形容北愛問題像死結一般。三十年的衝突除了涉及主權﹑種族﹑階級與宗教矛盾外，其中一個激起長年衝突的原因就是警察濫暴問題。當年的北愛有四成天主教徒人口，而北愛皇家阿爾斯特警察(Royal Ulster Constabulary) 卻只有8％ 天主教徒，新教徒佔警隊大多數。皇家阿爾斯特警察歧視信奉天生教的愛爾蘭人，而且對不少共和派（主張愛爾蘭島統一）天主教徒進行濫殺及酷刑。激發起實行恐佈主義的準軍事組織愛爾蘭共和軍崛起。
1998年北愛問題稍為平靜之際，北愛爾蘭自治政府、愛爾蘭政府和英國政府簽訂《貝爾法斯特協議》，展開了北愛和平進程。各方協議需要處理的其中一大難題就是臭名遠播的皇家阿爾斯特警察問題，親愛的共和派要求解散警隊，親英的保皇派則要求保留皇家阿爾斯特警察，這個問題被當時被認定為無法解開的結。
就在彭定康離任港督回到英國的幾個月後，時任北愛爾蘭內閣大臣 Mo Mowlam 邀請他成為北愛爾蘭治安獨立委員會主席。曾為北愛爾蘭次長以及作為愛爾蘭裔天主教徒的身份讓彭定康比更多英國政治家更合適擔任此角色。
彭定康如何解開這個死結？
彭定康委員會成立後，除了翻查多年來警民衝突的資料，亦開始邀請公眾投寄意見書及問卷﹑舉行大量焦點小組(Focus group) ﹑會世界各地的警察專家會面，並於北愛爾蘭不同地方舉行公眾對話會。
彭定康回憶起當時準備到一個叫 Portadown 的小鎮出席對話會前夕，小鎮附近遭受愛爾蘭共和軍的炸彈襲擊，造成31人死亡。但那次對話會依然吸引約一萬人出席，約一千人發言。而在這個危險的環境下，彭定康與其他委員會成員反而決定放棄保安措施。這是因為他們認為在市民與警察的嚴重對立下，警察在會上的存在會令市民無法暢所欲言。
在調查中，彭定康認為警隊要成功改革，需要經得起五大測試：
1. 未來的警隊能否有效用且效率高的治安工作？
2. 他們能否提供不偏不倚的治安工作，且不受黨派控制？
3. 他們能否對法律及社群問責？
4. 他們能否讓警察在社會上變得更有代表性？
5. 報告的建議能否維護所有人的人權與尊嚴？
經過一年的調查，彭定康認為北愛的警隊無須砍掉重練，但需進行大量沿革，並於1999年發表報告提出175項改革建議，其中包括在報告發表後的十年內，將警隊召募比例上天主教徒與新教徒各佔一半﹑將皇家阿爾斯特警察改名為北愛爾蘭警察 (Police Service Northern Ireland)，以去除任何英國與愛爾蘭的政治色彩，警署不再升起英國國旗﹑將警隊管理獨立於行政部門﹑大規模削減警隊編制等等。報告發表後初期，各界仍有不同聲音，但這份報告於後來成功平息了共和派與保皇派的嚴重分歧。報告至今二十年，北愛人對警隊的信任比例由當時的谷底上升至81％。彭定康化腐朽為神奇。
在整個調查研究中，彭定康抱著一些信念，認為警隊必須遠離政治角力與暴力的核心，以及不要逃避嘗試以溫和的手法去做對的事。
歷史告訴我們，社會上一些複雜難解的死結也有解開的可能。問題只在於掌控權力的人有沒有決心與氣度去嘗試把出軌的列車返回正軌。明顯地，林鄭兩樣特質也沒有。面對警員失控﹑警隊濫暴﹑學生站出來指證警察非禮﹑被捕人士的全裸屍體浮於海面等等幾個月前無法想像的可怕荒謬事件，她仍然無動於衷，並只懂將情況火上加油。加上一堆堆令人傻眼的失常行徑，例如邀請美國參議員到港會談卻臨時失約。
很快，香港就只剩兩條出路：變成另一個北愛爾蘭或者另一個新疆。
真正的千古罪人不是彭定康，而是林鄭月娥。
Source: Fungy Leely 豐吉‧莉莉
https://medium.com/@fungyleely/%E5%BD%AD%E5%AE%9A%E5%BA%B7%E6%80%8E%E6%A8%A3%E8%A7%A3%E9%96%8B%E5%8C%97%E6%84%9B%E7%88%BE%E8%98%AD%E4%B8%89%E5%8D%81%E5%B9%B4%E7%9A%84%E8%AD%A6%E6%B0%91%E4%BB%87%E6%81%A8%E4%B9%8B%E7%B5%90-7c5f3771c569
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