February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Ray O’Hanlon
British Northern Ireland Secretary of State Peter Mandelson has appealed to Irish Americans to be patient as the process of changing the police force in Northern Ireland gathers political momentum.
"People should get away from the rhetoric and generalizations. In time, they will be reassured," Mandelson told the Echo in a phone interview from London, minutes before he entered the House of Commons to present a bill outlining broad changes to the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Mandelson was responding to concerns expressed by Irish Americans in recent days, including specific criticism of the bill voiced in a letter to the New York Times published Tuesday.
In the letter, Fr. Sean McManus of the Washington, D.C.-based Irish National Caucus accused the British government of "trying to betray" the Patten report, which advocates a fundamental change in the way Northern Ireland is policed.
"My message to people in the U.S. is, please support us," Mandelson said. "Don’t rush to early judgment about the final form of legislation. Give everyone time and space to get the job right. We will get it right."
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Mandelson said that he wanted to stress the "sheer ambition" of the task ahead, which, he said, was the most complete reform of a policing philosophy ever attempted.
"What we’re taking on is a tall order . . . everything about the RUC is changing, from the name to the relationship at community level."
Mandelson said that he had engaged in "intensive and constructive" discussions with all parties interested in his government’s "Policing Bill," a measure that he was introducing for a "second reading" in the House of Commons minutes after the Echo interview.
He said that changes from the initial "first reading" draft of the bill would be outlined during Tuesday’s session.
The proposed Police Board would have a wider brief of inquiry than any such body in the U.S. or Ireland, Mandelson said. He said that he "might have been too cautious" in initially prohibiting the future police force in Northern Ireland from "political interference."
Addressing a key concern of critics of the bill’s first draft, Mandelson said while the Patten report had recommended a 10-year time limit on efforts to recruit Catholics and Protestants to the new force on an annual 50-50 basis, he was now proposing to "lift" that limit.
The 50-50 recruitment drive would now last for "as long as it takes." The process would be reviewed every three years.
"If Catholic recruitment falls short in one year, it will be made up in subsequent years," he said.
Mandelson said that the role of the police oversight committee needed to be written into the legislation and that the police ombudsperson’s office would be allowed access to any necessary papers and materials in order to properly function.
Under the proposed legislation, serving RUC officers would not be required to retake an oath of service while new recruits would be required to take an oath. However, Mandelson said that regardless of this difference, all officers would sign up to a new code of ethics and would be bound by the same human rights considerations.
Mandelson said that it was his intention to be "responsive" to criticism, but he said he wanted to remind critics that much of what was contained in the Patten report didn’t need to be in the Policing Bill in order to secure implementation.
Mandelson’s defense of the bill comes in the face of widespread concern, not least from the SDLP and Sinn Féin, which has stated that the Patten report is being "emasculated" by the Policing Bill.
Separately, the president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, Gerald Lynch, said last week that the Patten report was being "cherry-picked" and "gutted" by the bill.
Tuesday’s second reading of the Policing Bill in the House of Commons will be followed by debate and possible amendments at parliamentary committee level in July. It will then return to the House of Commons for a final vote.