15.9.1999
By Paul Mageean, Irish News
Despite the obvious controversy and contention surrounding the Patten report, the Good Friday agreement endorsed by over 70 per cent of the electorate had always made clear that "no change"was not an option for current policing arrangements in Northern Ireland.
Moreover, on certain issues it was clear that there was a degree of consensus.
In a society that is 40 per cent Catholic, how can a police service with 7 per cent Catholics expect to have any credibility?
Like all police bodies, many more women need to be attracted to work within the service, and a more pluralist force along ethnic and class lines would be a great advantage. Furthermore, everyone recognises that policing has been operating in quite abnormal conditions, relying since its inception on emergency powers.
There is also a widespread acceptance of the fact that there needs to be much greater community involvement in policing in future.
Those who voted for the agreement voted for an agreement that contained the promise of a new beginning to policing in Northern Ireland with a police service capable of attracting and sustaining support from the community.
This is what the Patten Commission was asked to deliver.
Undoubtedly, the commission has produced a substantial piece of work the list of recommendations alone runs to 175, some 15 pages.
Having received well over 2000 written submissions, held hundreds of meetings in public and private, and travelled around Northern Ireland, and abroad, to receive personal testimony from a wide variety of people, every constituency has had an opportunity to say its piece.
Indeed, from the analysis of the consultation process, it is clear that there is much about which the various sections of Northern Irish society agree in relation to policing.
The irony in Northern Ireland is that despite this common ground, policing has long been tied up in a web of political allegations and loyalties which has paralysed movement and allowed policing to remain a key site of alienation throughout the conflict.
Policing in Northern Ireland has always been politicised, as has discussion of changes to policing, rather than viewing matters like enhanced accountability and representation as good for society as a whole.
That is why Chris Patten explicitly recognised the need to remove politics from policing, and that is why he wants to remove names and symbols redolent only of the culture and allegiance of one community.
Instead, the Independent Commission on Policing wants to make the protection of human rights a cornerstone of the new police force.
While many recommendations will promote human rights, there are clearly important problems which have not been successfully resolved. Policing in Northern Ireland has, for example, always involved the use and abuse of emergency laws.
The CAJ, along with many others, argued that to establish a clear break with the past, the Patten Commission should recommend the withdrawal of such powers. However, Patten, while importantly advocating the closure of the holding centres and increased regulation of emergency laws, actually echoes the government view that such powers should go but only when the security situation allows.
Similarly, the report fails to call for an immediate end of the use of plastic bullets. In failing to do this as well as abolishing emergency laws the report is out of step with recommendations by a variety of UN human rights bodies.
Perhaps the most serious potential flaw in the report is the apparent absence of any mechanism to exclude officers who have been involved in past human rights abuses from the new service.
While Patten urges community and political leaders to encourage under-represented groups to join the new force, it may be difficult for such a leap of faith to be taken when the burning issues of past remain unaddressed.
The current command structure which includes officers implicated in controversies surrounding serious ill-treatment of detainees, shoot-to-kill allegations and collusion with loyalist paramilitaries remains intact.
Amalgamation of Special Branch and CID under one roof is a welcome but limited recognition of the fact that Special Branch has been at the heart of some of the most serious allegations of human rights abuses, both in the holding centres and in terms of collusion.
Interestingly, in a recommendation which has received little attention
to date, Patten also recommends that officers should not spend more than
five years in any one unit of the police and that those who have done so
should be moved to other sections.
He also recommends that Special Branch support units (presumably HQ
Mobile Support Units) should be brought into the regular force. International
experience suggests that breaking up such units is a central feature of
genuine transformation of policing. It appears that Patten has not ignored
this lesson and is also aware that if such units are left intact, under
whatever name, they may well become a site for resistance to the process
of change.
The importance of improved accountability was recognised and it is made clear that in future the Policing Board will be able to subject operational decisions taken by the Chief Constable to careful scrutiny, albeit after the fact.
In addition, a lawyer with specific expertise in human rights law is to be consulted about all police operations which raise human rights concerns. It is vital that the advice of that lawyer is made available to the Policing Board so that their questioning of the Chief Constable can be effective and informed.
The agreement does not allow for no change. Consultation on the implementation of the recommendations and enhancement of the human rights ethos and protection therein must now be high on the agenda.
Sadly, in Northern Ireland there is a long history of unimplemented reports and ignored recommendations.
The future of the Patten report and indeed the attainment of a fully representative and accountable police service to which everyone can give allegiance now becomes a matter of political will.
The acid test of the report of the Independent Commission on Policing will be whether or not it succeeds in translating human rights into practice.
It is in the interest of everyone in Northern Ireland that this happens.
Paul Mageean is the Legal Officer with the Committee on the Administration of Justice