Ard Fheis

Alex Maskey speaking in support of Motion 182

Published: 1 March, 2008

Just over a year ago we gathered for a Special Ard Fheis to map out the next steps we would take in our journey towards the creation of an accountable policing service in the North.

We collectively came to the view that the next stage in this process would be a critical engagement with the policing structures - the Policing Board itself and the local DPPs.

Along with party colleagues Martina Anderson and Daithi McKay, I am honored to have been selected to represent you as the first republican representatives on the Policing Board. With that representation comes a massive responsibility.
We are not simply on the Policing Board to take up seats. We are working to a very considered strategy which you the membership of this party mandated us to develop at last years special Ard Fheis. That resolution is the template which guides our strategy on the Policing Board.

Central to that is of course providing effective democratic accountability. But it is about much more than that. We have not yet achieved our central objective of a truly democratically accountable policing service.

That remains a live political project. But unlike issues in the past within the peace process which have been the task of our negotiators to resolve, the achievement of democratically accountable policing in the north for the first time since the foundation of the state is now the job of each and every activist.

We are on the Policing Board. Many of our council colleagues have taken leadership roles on the local DPPs. Other republicans have come forward to serve as independent members. Party activists have been attending the public DPP meetings and together we are challenging bad policing when we see it and working to put it right. Working with the PSNI to develop an effective civic policing service tackling crime and making our communities safer.

I believe we are making a difference which is a far cry from the days of Policing Board members paying lip service to holding the police to account. This is a big challenge for republicans and a huge challenge for the PSNI.

The next necessary component in the policing plan for republicans has to be the transfer of power over policing and justice into the hands of locally elected politicans. This is not some abstract notion. This is about control and influence over the wider criminal justice system including the judiciary. This is about delivery. This is about breaking a link with Whitehall which was responsible for collusion, for shoot to kill and for the construction of a paramilitary police force in the RUC. This is a core demand.

It is also a sensible demand. Every single community, group and individual with an interest in delivering an accountable and effective policing service in the north supports this demand. Sinn Fein have brought both governments to this position also. Any unionist opposition to the transfer of policing and justice powers is not based on a desire for better policing. It is based on narrow political and indeed internal interests. It seems that the demands of the people - both nationalist and unionist - for this to happen are secondary to whatever machinations are going on within political unionism. This is unacceptable and must not be allowed to happen. It is time for the DUP to deliver on St. Andrews and time for the two governments to hold firm.