Police officers “can’t be everywhere at once” and they are increasingly “making informed decisions with a limited resource”.

Retiring Detective Chief Inspector Derek Scott has admitted that local police are under pressure to prioritise which incidents they will attend first due to budget cuts.

The PSNI’s 2016-17 budget has been set at £646 million, down two per cent on the previous year. Police budgets have been gradually reducing for the past number of years.

Speaking at a wide-ranging meeting of Fermanagh and Omagh Policing and Community Safety Partnership (PCSP) on Tuesday evening, Detective Chief Inspector Scott said: “Sometimes we don’t even go at the time [of receiving a call] if I’m honest with you, but we will follow it up.”

He told The Impartial Reporter: “We have finite resources just like there are a finite number of nurses and doctors; it’s the world we are living in. But as our resources have reduced, our lines of communication into the community have improved. Hypothetically, if I got a pot of money for local policing I would invest it in the front end, the people who are out there.”

The theme of Tuesday night’s PCSP meeting was youth engagement but a wide range of issues were discussed such as drugs being sold outside an Enniskillen shop (see page one), the need for more officers on the beat and imminent changes to how night-time policing will be carried out in Enniskillen.

“We do have anti-social behaviour and criminal damage in certain areas of certain towns but when police arrive, the behaviour is fantastic and the police leave,” UUP Councillor Howard Thornton told the meeting. “I know there is a manpower shortage but youth engagement also requires youth engagement on street corners. Is there any potential of putting beats out in these areas?” he asked. 

Detective Chief Inspector Scott replied: “Where we have the resources, we will always look at where we can provide a beat.”
Following the meeting, he told this newspaper that there were officers on beat at Forthill Park last week when the good weather saw many people take to the park with alcohol. He said it was no coincidence that there was thousands of pounds worth of damage caused to windows in two schools located near Forthill Park last week. “That goes beyond a nuisance,” he said, adding that Railway Park is also a problem area where beats are deployed.

Asked what are the most concerning crimes over his 30 years as a police officer, he said: “We will always be concerned about violent crime. And, if you live in an area where there’s anti-social behaviour, it’s a big issue for you. We have to find out why that’s happening, while prioritising calls and working with a finite resource.”

A new Night-time Economy Strategy is set to be introduced to local police officers, aiming to see Enniskillen’s night-time policing mirror that of Omagh. This will include officers getting out on the streets early in the evening to engage with revellers as they enter the pubs, so that they are more likely to engage with that same police officer in the early hours of the morning. Officers are already attempting to deal with minor incidents of disorderly behaviour and criminal damage by way of community resolution so that young people are not getting a criminal record. 

“Some people make bad decisions, but should we criminalise them?” said Detective Chief Inspector Scott.

“We have two night-time economies in Enniskillen and Omagh. Omagh is centred around John Street, whereas Enniskillen is elongated and runs from Willie Ramblers to the Devenish and everything in between, so a different type of policing has evolved.

“When we sat and looked at it, a lot of good practice has evolved in Omagh quicker, maybe because of the ‘one punch’. It raced ahead of Fermanagh to a degree. I want to get that balanced and I want to ensure that we are not working as two separate districts but are delivering as one area. There are comparable resources in each town on a Saturday night, I will not reveal the figures. What we don’t want to be doing is arriving in a car – that doesn’t work. And we don’t want to arrive at a fight – at that stage it’s too late. We are trying desperately to get out early and speak to people before they start drinking. Do we get out enough? Probably not.

“We are trying so hard not to criminalise young people. The number of people being arrested for minor offences has greatly reduced over the past three years due to community resolution.”