O’Loan meets Chief Constable on MI5 and dealing with the past

Ballymena SDLP councillor Declan O’Loan along with Policing Board members Alex Attwood and Dolores Kelly met the Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Orde, last Friday. Sir Hugh was accompanied by Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton, and Assistant Chief Constable Peter Sheridan. 

Declan O’Loan led the discussions on dealing with the past. He stressed the urgent need to devise a mechanism for truth recovery and endorsed the Healing Through Remembering report. He warned that not everyone seeking a Truth Commission was genuinely seeking the truth. There are those who would create a minimalist truth recovery process designed to shut down the work of the Historical Enquiries Team, the retrospective work of the Police Ombudsman, and retrospective criminal investigations.

Councillor O’Loan said, “I got the sense that the PSNI are very supportive of a broad-based process for dealing with the past in which they would play a part. They are clearly hugely concerned about the resource demands of hundreds of criminal investigations currently requested by relatives. It is not generally recognised that the functions of the Historical Enquiries Team do not extend to doing full criminal investigations. Their remit is “to offer answers to families and to identify and explore any remaining or new evidential opportunities that exist”. It is essential to recognize the resource demands of retrospective investigations and to provide for it. Above all it is not acceptable to have a truth recovery mechanism whose real function is to shut off the legitimate demand for the truth by victims and survivors.”

On MI5, the SDLP argued strongly that oversight of MI5 be equally effective to that applying to the PSNI, as recommended in the Police Ombudsman McCord report. The Party is also far from convinced that the principles of engagement between the PSNI and MI5 guarantee continued accountability of all PSNI activity.

Councillor O’Loan said on this issue, “We have got rid of Special Branch as a force within the force, hidden from the public view. There is now increased trust for the PSNI because it is subject to scrutiny. It is not in the public interest that there is a perception that hidden areas are creeping in again. It is not in the PSNI’s interest either.