Storey and Cavlan at loggerheads over policing
Thursday, 13 November 2008
NORTH Antrim DUP MLA Mervyn Storey has hit out at newly appointed DPP Chair Anita Cavlan who has defended her recent comments about policing in the Ballymoney area.
Cllr Storey said, "There are a number of misleading and contradictory comments from the new chair of Ballymoney DPP, however her party has never let the facts get in the way of communicating with the public in the past so why change now.
“It would seem that Sinn Fein will use any excuse to attack the police even if it is their attendance at a fireworks display to carry out traffic duties and reassure those attending of a police presence. I know that Cllr Cavlan is struggling with how things are now and that she would probably prefer that we had such events policed by the "community" but in a democratic society it is the one of the duties of the police to carry out such a function.
“Surely in light of recent trouble at the Joey Dunlop Centre was it not a good thing that the police were present?
“Then we had the claim that Cllr Cavlan was going to hold the police to more scrutiny and make them more accountable. If I am not mistaken that already happens on a regular basis and when it comes to work with other agencies such as the housing executive that too is already happening. Maybe Cllr Cavlan is suffering from selective memory. A particular problem with most Sinn Fein members.
“It would have been useful if Cllr Cavlan would have used her influence with her party colleagues in Belfast last weekend. So that the huge cost of policing the protest organised by her party could have been avoided. No doubt that money could have been directed to the community in a more beneficial way, rather than it being spent on a totally needless protest, which only exposed the real sectarian face of Sinn Fein.
“We will be watching closely the new chairperson of Ballymoney DPP to see how she operates. However if these first few comments are anything to go by she can best be described as a raw recruit, who has need of more training."
Cavlan responds
Responding to these remarks Anita Cavlan said "I don't need training and I intend to take the job seriously. You can sit like a nodding dog and do nothing or you can do something. Does he not understand what the job is about? I have the rest of the DPP working with me. We are setting up a monitoring group to Study CI Wallace's quarterly reports. We need a more structured approach, where we can discuss the report in advance of the meeting. If Mervyn knew what was going on he would know its about budget and a lack of resources. "
She continued, "We have to hold police to account. I am not complaining about local PSNI officers, I am trying to help officers on the ground. They are being taken away from neighbourhood policing duties to do jobs they are not supposed to be doing. I am complaining about the budget and their superiors say there is not a problem with the budget when there is. I hear from individual officers not just constables, but Sergeants and Inspectors. I'm working on their behalf trying to get more resources.
Commenting on the recent fireworks display, she said "Officers complained to me that they were taking up time that should have been spent doing other things as neighbourhood policemen." She continued, "The delivery of neighbourhood policing is part of Patton and we were promised that unarmed officers working with communities would be delivered. I have visited the call centre with Cllr Finlay. Mervyn hasn't been to the call centre. He's not a member of the DPP he doesn't know what is going on. I'm not here to lambast local officers I have a good enough rapore with them. Its not Nationalist complaining about no officers its everybody."
