Chief Constable Jon Boutcher was entirely correct to declare that ensuring the PSNI is fully representative of the community it serves is “critically important”.
This is an enduring aim, and it was an issue at the heart of the Patten Report which, during a period of huge optimism after the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, helped to create the new service in 2001.
However, Mr Boutcher also openly acknowledged earlier this week that the relatively low total of Catholics seeking to join the police was a concern, saying: “The figures are not what I want. There is no doubt about that.”
The PSNI received 3,500 applications for membership in its latest recruitment programme, which closed on Wednesday, with 27 per cent coming from those who identify as Catholic.
According to the 2021 Northern Ireland census, 45.7 per cent of the population identified as Catholics, a higher number than Protestants for the first time in the history of the state.
The most recent figures released by the PSNI, in December of last year, show that its religious breakdown was 66 per cent Protestant and 32.6 per cent Catholic, with 1.4 per cent undetermined.
It cannot be appropriate that a police service in a society which is essentially evenly divided contains more than twice as many Protestants as Catholics, and the recruitment statistics showed starkly that without additional measures this gap is only going to increase.
Another aspect which deserves to be noted is that, while the PSNI should be as diverse as possible in all regards, records show just 26 per cent of its membership is composed of northern-born Catholics, with the remainder of their co-religionists coming from other geographical locations.
It needs to be stressed that, of the many factors influencing the religious balance of the service, the most appalling is the campaign of violence and intimidation maintained by dissident republicans and largely directed against Catholic officers.
The level of threat is thankfully limited at present, with the micro groups in question needing to finally accept that their evil methods cause only revulsion among the vast majority of the population.
However, if the PSNI is to progress as intended, serious consideration will have to be given to the restoration of the 50/50 recruitment policy which was introduced by Patten and dropped in deeply contentious circumstances, after sustained unionist lobbying, by the Conservative secretary of state Owen Paterson in 2011.
It is a debate of major significance, and the objective must be to ensure that, after the heartening advances made over the last quarter of a century, the PSNI will always be a trusted service which reflects all the highest standards in modern policing.
