Question
Pg 6 is not a satisfactory response re: ethnic minorities and the travelling community. The response looks like a tick box exercise. Can PSNI identify why more Irish travellers and ethnic minorities are being fined? Are PSNI taking this issue sufficiently seriously?
Answer
For clarity, the previous response referred to is included below:
“The Police Service is committed to discharging its policing responsibilities in an inclusive, non-biased, lawful and proportionate manner. Issues arising from enforcement action were considered to identify any particular factors or trends.
No specific thematic issues relating to ethnicity have yet been identified through analysis. However, during the period covered by the reported figures, the vast majority of enforcement activity was in relation to gatherings in contravention of the Public Health Regulations, rather than individual breaches. In such circumstances, small numbers of cases disproportionately impact the overall statistics where gatherings involve large numbers from a single community.
The Police Service continues to closely monitor the use of a range of police powers by officers in an attempt to learn lessons and further develop our approach in line with our commitment to policing in an inclusive, non-biased, lawful and proportionate manner. This relates to the use of intrusive powers in a range of circumstances and not just in relation to enforcement of Coronavirus Regulations. The Police Powers Development Group is now under review to ensure that the Police Service has the most sophisticated understanding possible of its use of such powers, their impact on our communities and the reasons for disparities such as those highlighted within the question.”
Accountability
The Police Service is committed to discharging its policing responsibilities in an inclusive, non-biased, lawful and proportionate manner and welcomes scrutiny and challenge to enhance accountability. Associated with this, the Service seeks to identify factors or trends which assist in achieving this aim and to improve the legitimacy of the Police within all communities within Northern Ireland.
The Police Service continually monitors its use of policing powers through the Police Powers Development Group (PPDG) and has regularly invited independent advisory group members discuss their use and review the statistics.
It is worth noting that the Police Service is currently revising the PPDG governance arrangements for the use of policing powers through the development of Service Accountability Panel structures at both service and local level. The new accountability structures will replace the PPDG and be co-created with the assistance of professional external reference group members, commencing in August 2022.
Engagement
The Police Service remains committed through its Strategic Community Engagement Team (SCET) to improving relations, co-operation and legitimacy with all communities in Northern Ireland.
The Strategic Community Engagement Team has been engaging at a strategic level with groups from the Black, Asian and other ethnically diverse communities, including the following groups that are specific to the traveller and Roma communities:
- Belfast Trust Regional Traveller Forum
- Forward South
- Craigavon Travellers Support
The purpose of this engagement is to understand concerns within communities from diverse backgrounds. It is also aimed at further enhancing our commitment around one of the key pillars contained in the Service’s recently launched ‘Here for You’ Engagement Strategy, specifically procedural fairness. This relates to our pledge to embed an organisational culture in which all our encounters with the public demonstrate procedural justice, reinforcing that policing is a fair, impartial and universal service across the entire community in Northern Ireland. This will involve working with our communities to enhance and develop our procedures to ensure they are effective, proportionate and subject to continuous improvement. The team is already developing a piece of work around Independent Scrutiny Panels (ISPs) which, if introduced, could provide an effective way to subject our use of powers, particularly in respect of stop and search, to public scrutiny so that we can obtain community feedback and utilise this to inform and improve our policies and procedures.
The Strategic Community Engagement Team is in the process of arranging hate crime awareness sessions for the Roma community to enhance their understanding of the hate crime legislation and encourage reporting from this section of the community.
QA process for issue of Community Resolution and Covid Penalty Notices
The figures regarding Community Resolution Notices (CRNs) and Covid Penalty Notices (CPNs) in the period between 1 January 2021 and 31 July 2021, have been
reviewed by the Police Services’ Criminal Justice Department and a dip sampling exercise conducted regarding those persons recorded as being from a minority background for breaches of the Health Regulations between 1st January 2021 and 31st July 2021 as follows:
COMMUNITY RESOLUTION NOTICES
Total of 647 issued – 19 (2.9%) of these recorded as being issued to those from a minority background.
Of the 19 Community Resolution Notices (CRN’s), 18 were issued as a result of calls for service arising from reports from the public relating to gatherings which at the time were unlawful under the restrictions. One CRN was issued as a result of an officer detection which had not been reported by a member of the public.
COVID PENALTY NOTICES
Total of 4857 issued (this is a slight increase in the original figure of 4818 provided due to CPN’s being recorded on police systems at later dates) – of these 236 (4.85%) recorded as being issued to those from a minority background.
In the review 11 of the occurrences resulted in multiple Covid Penalty Notices (CPN) being issued. This means that on 11 occasions the police attended and issued more than one CPN per occurrence. These 11 occurrences accounted for 102 (43%) of the Covid Penalty Notices issued to those of a minority background. All of these occurrences resulted from reports from members of the public in relation to unlawful gatherings.
The finding of this review regarding the gatherings referred to in both categories of enforcement, CRN and CPN, was that they related almost exclusively to private house parties at which multiple persons were present and the resultant enforcement by the Police Service was in response to calls for service from the public.
Professional Standards
The Police Service, through its Professional Standards Department, works closely with the Office of Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (OPONI). Currently no trends of disproportionality have been identified regarding the files received from OPONI relating to these issues and no issues have been raised from OPONI as a whole.
During the financial year April 2021 to May 2022 there were 29 allegations made to OPONI of racially discriminatory behaviour made against Police Service officers as a result of fines issued. This is broadly comparable with previous years.
Gerry Kelly - Sinn Féin