DUP councillor and chairperson of Antrim DPP Pam Lewis has said she is alarmed that the police are now asking for the political opinion of their recruits as well as their religion in order to "ensure the recruitment process is operated fairly".
This issue was brought to the attention of her DUP colleague Sammy Wilson MP MLA through a constituency correspondence with the Policing Board.
"I am alarmed at this latest attempt by the PSNI to achieve ‘equality’. It is scandalous that recruits
are already asked to state their religion, and not as a formality, but because their religion determines if they can enter the force in the first place under the discriminatory 50/50 process," Cllr. Lewis said.
She added: "But what is now even more outrageous is that the political opinion of recruits is being questioned. This question is not being asked without reason. The police will now make judgements on who will be in their ranks and this will be in part determined by their political opinion. This is to be expected in Zimbabwe, but not in Northern Ireland.
"This has nothing to do with policing, indeed all this will serve to do is to damage the reputation of the police and undermine its standing across the community.
"If we want to see true equality in the police then we need to move towards the position where religion and politics is not taken into account when recruiting, but instead the skills, ability and suitability of the candidate is.”
The full article contains 256 words and appears in Antrim Times newspaper.
