Question
You will be very aware of the policing issues that have been raised around the disappearance and death of 14 year old Noah Donohoe in June.
I appreciate that there is a Coroner's court investigation ongoing. However the revelations, which are now out publicly from that court, need to be answered by the police.
That a senior member/members of the PSNI refused to authorise overtime citing financial considerations and 'Missing Person Fatigue', is beyond credibility or belief.
As a long standing member of the Policing Board, I have to say that in all that time, I have never heard the concept of 'missing person fatigue'.
Can you confirm:
1. That overtime wasn't authorised
2. It wasn't authorised due to financial considerations
3. It wasn't authorised due to Missing Person's Fatigue
If point 3 is correct, how did this term originate and what other cases has it impacted upon? How is fatigue assessed and what criteria needs to be met to allow a senior officer to make such an assertion which impacts on resources while a child is missing?
What do you as Chief constable intend to do about this?
Answer
1. The Police Service fully resourced the search operation for Noah and the subsequent investigation. There was no reduction in the number of resources needed based on overtime or any other reason.
2. The operation was fully resourced and considerable overtime was allocated to assist with it. There were no activities delayed or not done due to lack of resources or overtime not being approved.
3. The term ‘missing person fatigue’ is not connected to any aspect of resource allocation or overtime approval and is not a term we would recognise.
We continue to fully resource this investigation as required on behalf of the Coroner
Gerry Kelly - Sinn Féin