PSNI review recommends Crossmaglen station closure

Northern Ireland's most fortified police station at Crossmaglen in south Armagh should close, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has said.

It is part of a policing outlook which is seen in the surrounding community as "militaristic".

A review containing 50 recommendations also said assault rifles should no longer be carried as routine by officers on patrol duties.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said it was a "politically naïve document".

"The recommendations in this report would make Patten blush," he said in a statement.

He said the end goal of the report was the "creation of all-Ireland policing structures" which was "politically unacceptable".

The report said consideration should be given to using Irish in messages and signs.

The report also recommended "exploring" the relocation of memorials to murdered police officers in south Armagh stations.

"Memorials commemorating the past have a profound impact on the police culture of today," it stated.

"This is particularly relevant in south Armagh where the level of police loss was great.

"The review suggests the station working environment in south Armagh has a negative impact on the mindset of police officers who work there, extending to those who have no lived experience of conflict."

Chief Constable Simon Byrne told BBC News NI the station was "an emblem of the past" and had "no place in modern policing".

"Anyone that has had the chance to go inside [Crossmaglen] station… will probably be quite horrified about the conditions we're asking officers to work in and for members of the public to come and see us," he added.

"Significant trust and confidence issues" between the local community and the police were identified by the report.

The review was launched after a social media post by the chief constable sparked anger in December 2019.

It showed him posing for a photo outside Crossmaglen Station with officers holding rifles.

Some nationalist politicians criticised him, saying the image was offensive to the local community.

The review into the style and tone of policing in south Armagh has resulted in a 170-page report published by the PSNI on Tuesday.

News of the recommended closure of Crossmaglen Station had been leaked weeks ago, following a briefing involving the Policing Board.

During the Troubles, south Armagh was one of the most dangerous areas to police due to IRA attacks - in 1975 then Secretary of State Merlin Rees labelled it "bandit country".

It led to heavily-fortified security installations and watchtowers being built, many of them by the Army.

An estimated 2,400 bombings and shootings took place in south Armagh between 1970 and 1993.

But today the threat level is lower than other areas.

Of 53 security-related incidents in Northern Ireland last year, none were in south Armagh and the last terrorist incident recorded was in 2015.

The greatest risk to officer safety is "presented by criminality and roads", the report stated.

The report found the PSNI lacks credibility in the area - but there is no evidence of "a rejection of policing".

Officers generally regard the community with suspicion and it is a barrier to building a relationship built on respect and trust.

One of the main recommendations is the closure of Crossmaglen Police Station and disposing of the site within the next five years.

The base "does not provide a positive or effective policing presence", the report stated.

A new station on an out-of-town site would signal "a separation from the past", but is not achievable in the current financial climate.

Despite Crossmaglen being arguably the better location, the area's policing will in future be provided solely from a redeveloped station 10 miles away in Newtownhamilton, the report added.

It would be renamed South Armagh Police Station.

"One potential consideration may be the use of Irish language messaging on signage outside South Armagh Police Station in line with commitments under the Fresh Start Agreement," the report stated.

It also recommended that G36 assault rifles, which appeared in the photograph Mr Byrne shared on social media, should no longer be carried by patrols as standard.

Instead they should require the authorisation of an inspector.

Crossmaglen Police Station is staffed by 11 officers who live on site during shifts of three-to-four days at a time.

The station has limited opening hours to the public at three days per week.

On average it gets one call a day for assistance, compared to 15 a day at Newtownhamilton Station.

The chief constable said the "style and tone" of policing in south Armagh "hasn't kept pace with the modernisation of policing that we've seen in other parts of the country".

"It gives us that wakeup call to reset the dial and invest in a more modern style of policing that's based on neighbourhood police teams," he added.

Mr Byrne said the PSNI has committed to closing the station and the next step is to work with the policing board, which owns the building, but "more importantly the community to see where's the right place to put a new, purpose built facility to provide a visible presence in that part of the country".

Discussing the proposal to relocate memorials to murdered police officers Mr Byrne said: "It's not about disrespecting their past, their sacrifices and the holes that's left in people's lives.

"The actual issue of memorials won't be one we will take forward immediately.

"We want to move carefully with people that are affected by any change, which is serving officers, the federation, people that have worked with us previously and their families and the associations which represent them to see how best we address these issues."

In a statement the Police Federation for Northern Ireland said it was "accepted that the current Crossmaglen station is not fit for purpose" but that a new station should be built on the same site.

"That would be the most sensible solution if everyone was being serious about bringing effective community policing to the area," it added.

"We have been consulted at local level about all of this but, frankly, this report in its totality was delivered as a fait accompli without full consultation where our corporate views could have been taken on board."

However, Sir Jeffrey said the chief constable was in real danger of "completely undermining confidence in the impartiality of police, not only in south Armagh but across Northern Ireland".

"This would take two-tier policing to a whole new level," he added.

"All law-abiding citizens want to see better policing in south Armagh and will support steps to achieve such but that does not include sending officers, as per recommendation 43 [in the report] for "local external training" so they have a better narrative of south Armagh," he said.

Sir Jeffrey said he would meet the chief constable on Thursday to discuss the report.

Newry and Armagh MLA, Sinn Féin's Conor Murphy, welcomed the report which, he said, could lead to a "new beginning" to policing if properly implemented.

He said it was "a huge development for the people of the area".

"All of these recommendations can begin to change the image of policing in South Armagh by removing the negative, militaristic style of the past which has damaged community relations," he said.

Policing Board member Dolores Kelly of the SDLP welcomed the recommendations.

"People here have been living with the vestiges of an ingrained militaristic policing operation for far too long,"she said.

"The reality for people in places like Crossmaglen is that they haven't had a real chance to experience a new beginning to policing because of the attitude and the practice of the PSNI," she added. 

Ulster Unionist assembly member Mike Nesbitt said Crossmaglen police station is not fit for purpose and the party supports a new station for south Armagh.

However, he added: "What is clear is that the proposal with regard to memorials is totally unacceptable.

"We will not support anything that suggests disrespect for the sacrifice of those who laid down their lives for the community."

DUP MP Gregory Campbell said there should be caution about the potential for precedents to be set by the implementation of the report.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme, he said there had been an outcry about the moving of a memorial in Londonderry five years ago remembering RUC and PSNI officers injured or killed in the city.

"Thankfully the police not only saw sense, but the wider community saw the sensitivities of that. If they are going to repeat the same mistake in south Armagh they can hardly expect a different outcome," he said.