 has had legal action taken against it by four former police officers who claim they were victims of anti-Catholic discrimination.){kind=link}
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has had legal action taken against it by four former police officers who claim they were victims of anti-Catholic discrimination.
The cases come 23 years after the PSNI was established in 2001, three years after the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland ended the Troubles.
One of the officers who spoke to the Belfast Telegraph on condition of anonymity cautioned potential recruits from joining the service.
“Think long and hard about it, long and hard—especially if you’re a Roman Catholic officer because there’s so much baggage,” he said.
The anonymous officer’s attorney Kevin Winters confirmed there had been at least three other Catholic officers taking the PSNI to court for discrimination.
“The common thread running through each of the case details relates to embedded cultural sectarianism—some of which is at a low level but in other instances is quite significant,” he said.
“I have to state that in each case there’s an understandable hesitancy about venturing into legal action of this nature.”
The Catholic Police Officer Guild of Northern Ireland said in a statement the reports on “internal sectarianism” and the challenges faced by the Catholic officer “undermine the principles of equality and respect” integral to policework.
The statement expressed solidarity with the officers who were victims of discrimination and emphasised the importance of “fostering an inclusive environment within the PSNI.”
When the PSNI, the third largest police service in the United Kingdom, was created following the Report of the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland, equal recruitment of both Catholics and Protestants was recommended.
From 2001 to 2011, this was observed and half of the recruits were Catholics and the other half were not, however, in the years since this balance has not been maintained.
The Police Federation has released figures stating only 29 per cent of the nearly 5,000 applicants of the latest recruitment drive were Catholic.
“The plain and simple truth is that despite best efforts, Catholics are still put off applying to become student officers for a number of reasons but especially because of threat levels posed by dissident republicans,” Police Federation chief Liam Kelly said.