Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson announced today
that the PSNI’s recruitment policy of 50% Catholic, 50% Protestant/other will end in six
days. This comes after a four-month consultation and review process ended in
early February.
The original policy was created on the recommendation
of the 1999 Patten report to diversify the police force. When it was
implemented in 2001, some 8% of the makeup of the PSNI was Catholic. Today 29.76% of officers are from a Catholic community - nearly a third
of the police force.
In a written statement to Westminster, Mr Paterson said
that the 50:50 policy was no longer necessary and that the PSNI should be
allowed to ‘develop naturally’ from this point on.
Read the original stories at BBC News and the Belfast Telegraph.
