Police Board gives reserve reprieve
The Police Board in the North has decided to give the full-time police reserve a two-and-a-half year reprieve.
The Patten Report had recommended their phasing out but the new Chief Constable said the level of threat demanded their retention.
The 2,000 members of the full-time reserve will now stay at their jobs at least until March 2005. The UUP and SDLP members of the board and Sinn Fein have already begun to debate the decision.
Gerry Kelly of Sinn Fein dismissed the board as a ‘toothless tiger’ and said he didn't think the British government would bridge the massive gap required to get his party on board before next May's assembly elections.
Responding, the deputy chairman of the Police Board, Denis Bradley, said there was no reason under the sun why Sinn Fein should not join the board which was holding the police accountable to the public.
SDLP assemblyman, Alex Attwood, another board member, said his party was doing all the heavy lifting work on the Police Board while Sinn Fein dithered on the sidelines to try and gain narrow political advantage.
