Simon Byrne arrived at the special meeting at about 12:15 BST
By Niall Glynn
BBC News NI
PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne is facing the Northern Ireland Policing Board in an emergency meeting, following calls for him to resign.
Unionist parties have described his position as untenable and say they have no confidence in him.
Pressure has been mounting on Mr Byrne after a number of recent controversies.
The latest was on Tuesday, when a court ruled that two junior officers were unlawfully disciplined for an arrest made at a Troubles commemoration event.
The judge said they were disciplined to allay a threat that Sinn Féin could withdraw its support for policing, but Sinn Féin insisted that there was no such threat.
Mr Byrne arrived with Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton.
Asked if he was planning to resign, the chief constable made no comment.
Mr Byrne is facing questions in a closed-door meeting with the 19-person board, which oversees the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
The chief constable arrived about 12:15 BST.
It is the third special meeting the board has held within the space of a month.
It met a week ago to follow up on a major data breach, which saw the names of 10,000 officers and civilian staff mistakenly released as part of a response to a Freedom of Information request.
It was one of a number of data breaches involving information about staff.
Low morale within the service has been reported in recent months, with some staff saying they fear for their safety over the breaches.
‘Political interference’
The Policing Board is made up of 10 political and nine independent members and holds the chief constable to account.
Sinn Féin won the most seats in last year’s Stormont elections, with the nationalist party beating the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) into second place for the first time and giving it the right to nominate Northern Ireland’s first minister.
As the largest nationalist and unionist parties in the mothballed power-sharing executive, which the DUP collapsed in February 2022 as part of its protest against Brexit trading agreements, each has three seats on the Policing Board.
Image source, PA Media
Simon Byrne at a Policing Board meeting last week
A special session of the board can be called if seven members request it.
This meeting is happening in private so cameras can’t show how Simon Byrne is coping so far.
It’s already lasted almost two hours; it could last several hours more.
It’s over to the chief constable to spell out his recollection of events and among the questions he’s facing are:
- Does he reject the view put forward by Sinn Féin that they in no way threatened to withdraw support for policing if action wasn’t taken?
- Will he take responsibility for the decision that was eventually taken?
- Does he disagree with any of the High Court findings and if not, how does he expect to regain the confidence of unionist parties and some of his own rank and file?
Even if board members get straight answers to those questions, Mr Byrne’s position remains far from secure.
The DUP’s lead representative on the board, Trevor Clarke, said he hoped Mr Byrne would offer his resignation to the board at Thursday’s meeting.
He said it was clear there had been political interference in relation to policing decisions.
“If Simon Byrne could read the room, he will know himself there’s no coming back from this,” Mr Clarke said.
The Ulster Unionist Party and Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) both said they had no confidence in Mr Byrne to remain in the top job.
Alliance and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) said they wanted to hear from Mr Byrne before taking a view on his future as chief constable.
On Thursday morning, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said there was a serious problem with policing in Northern Ireland.
“We are very close to being at a point of no return, if we don’t fix the recruitment and retention issue,” he told BBC News NI.
“The first way to resolve it is to bring 50:50 recruitment back and to deal with some of the cultural issues within the PSNI.
He also said the operation of the Policing Board needed to be reviewed to improve its accountability.
The PSNI replaced the Royal Ulster Constabulary in November 2001, and the 50-50 recruitment policy ran for its first 10 years until 2011.
It meant there should be one Catholic recruit for every person recruited from a Protestant or other background.
‘Hard decision’
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said the recent court ruling had raised issues that go “to the heart of public confidence in our police service and in the senior leadership”.
He added: “I think the key issue for the Policing Board now is who is best placed to win back that confidence, because there’s no doubt there’s been a series now of situations and events that have harmed public confidence.
“We have come to the view that it is time for change.”
Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy said his party had never insinuated or suggested that it would be withdrawing from policing arrangements in relation to the events at the Troubles commemoration.
“We’ve been involved in policing on the Policing Board and on local policing arrangements to hold policing to account to ensure the process and progress of transformation,” he said
“The job of all political representatives on all of these bodies is to ensure that we hold all levels of policing to account and that’s what we do.”
Image source, PA Media
DUP Policing Board members Joanne Bunting (left) and Trevor Clarke (right) attended Thursday’s meeting along with independent Policing Board member Mukesh Sharma (centre)
Alliance leader Naomi Long, who was previously Stormont’s justice minister, addressed questions over her contact with Mr Byrne around the time of the Ormeau Road arrest controversy.
She said “at all times” as justice minister she made a “clear distinction” between her role and oversight bodies such as the Policing Board.
“At no time, and on no issue, did I ever seek to influence the chief constable’s decision-making in any way,” she added.
Mrs Long said she had two phone calls with Mr Byrne after the incident, one of which was a scheduled “routine” communication and the other a briefing on the outcome of a Policing Board meeting.
“That was a briefing he gave me, I was not there to brief him,” she added.
“These are matters ultimately for the chief constable to decide and the chief constable has to account for his conduct.”
TUV leader Jim Allister tweeted that the Policing Board should “sack Chief Constable (it won’t)” and answer why it “actively involved itself” in the “process that led to the unlawful disciplining”.
Fresh questions over Mr Byrne’s leadership were raised on Tuesday after a judge ruled that two junior PSNI officers were unlawfully disciplined for an arrest made at a commemoration on Belfast’s Ormeau Road in February 2021.
Five people were killed and several others injured in the 1992 gun attack
The event marked a UFF attack at a bookmakers in which five people were killed and nine others were injured.
In February 2021, the annual wreath-laying ceremony at the scene took place amid restrictions on public gatherings due to Covid-19 regulations.
During this, one man who had been shot and injured in the attack was detained on suspicion of disorderly behaviour and put in handcuffs.
He was later released without charge.
Mr Justice Scoffield quashed decisions to suspend one probationary constable and re-position his colleague following the arrest.
