A day of contrast

Tuesday was a day of contrasting opportunities to visit local communities in the morning and colleagues undergoing training in the afternoon.

In the morning I visited the Dunmurry Neighbourhood Policing Team and went out on patrol with them in Dunmurry village and also in the Colin area of West Belfast.

Firstly I visited the Dunmurry Community Association at Fullerton Park where I heard first hand, from Billy Thompson, about the fantastic initiatives which members of the local community, in partnership with police, are pioneering to help local young people and provide them with activities to keep them safe and divert them away from criminality and anti social behaviour.

I am always amazed and greatly inspired by the work of volunteers who have a heart for their local community and choose to give freely of their time to make things better for others.

I then had the opportunity to meet with local community, political and council representatives, members from Community Restorative Justice Ireland (CRJI) and statutory service providers at an informal meeting at the offices of CRJI on the Colinglen Road, Belfast.

It was fantastic to hear about how these individuals and their organisations, are working together with local police to help make the local community feel, and keep, safer and to help local communities deal with those issues that really matter to them. The transformation in relationships between the police and the community is quite remarkable and I applaud those both within the community and the police who have pushed the boundaries and taken risks to build that trust and confidence which is so clearly making a difference.

From Dunmurry I headed to Ballykinler in County Down where I joined colleagues who were undertaking public order training. The purpose of the day was to allow multiple public order units to train together in readiness for any situation they might encounter in the future.

There were a number of observers from other agencies present, including the Police Ombudsman’s Office, Learning Advisory Council, Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), Fire Service and the Home Office. The MPS and Home Office representatives were particularly interested to see how our tactics, including less lethal options such as water cannon and the deployment of attenuating energy projectiles (AEPs or baton rounds).

The exercises take place in the tactical village and is a safe learning environment to train for a variety of scenarios from peaceful protests, to public disorder with a ballistic threat. It allows us to ensure that when we do have to respond to public disorder, that we have the ability to deliver a flexible, gradual, proportionate and professional response to the situation.

I am always very impressed by the courage and restraint of PSNI officers who show professionalism in the face of often serious and sustained violence towards them.

Whether on the streets of Dunmurry or West Belfast delivering policing with the community, or keeping communities safe in the face of actual or potential public disorder, your police service works tirelessly 24/7 to ensure that everyone receives personal, professional and protective policing.

I thank those of you who continually work with us to achieve this goal and encourage you to continue to do so. It is very clearly making a difference.