The SDLP chair and policing spokesperson Alex Attwood has criticised a senior PSNI personnel director, Joe Stewart, for claiming that the Catholic Church has not done enough to encourage its young people to join the police service in the North.
The senior director of Human Resources in the PSNI said Catholic recruitment levels were holding steady. Mr Stewart said Catholic bishops had made initial supportive comments about the new service but his personal view and that of the organisation was that that was not enough.
More could be done, he said, and he referred to the Patten report which talked about the community as a whole and Church leaders in particular encouraging people to pursue careers in the police service. It still seems to be a more acceptable career within the Protestant community and not within the Catholic community, he added, and that is down to people who have got influence in society to change that.
Mr Attwood said the comments by Mr Stewart were inaccurate and ill informed. The West Belfast Assembly member said the contribution of the Catholic Church to the promotion of the Patten Report and policing changes had been a defining characteristic of church leadership in recent times.
The suggestions otherwise did not reflect reality and would fuel those who liked to promote a false impression of church conduct in the North, he said.
Mr Attwood called on Mr Stewart to correct what he called his damaging comments and to acknowledge that the Catholic Church recognised that policing was a noble career when others in society claimed and continued to claim otherwise.
