Debate contribution: Police Morale
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 9 September 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Police Morale
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4511562
Read the official Assembly record
Text
At the end of the day, it is about working with the Chief Constable through the structures that we have. The reality is that, in a devolved institution, the money that comes to Northern Ireland is not hypothecated. It is for this Assembly, on the basis of recommendations brought by the Executive, to vote through a Budget and decide how we spend our money locally. That is the reality of the situation. Even were the Chief Constable to be successful in lobbying Westminster, that money would come to the Department of Finance, and it would be for us around the Executive table and in this Chamber to decide where it ended up. The important thing is that I work closely, as I have been doing, with the Chief Constable to build the strongest possible case at the Executive table, so that funding that comes to Northern Ireland makes it into the Department of Justice's budget. To date, that has not been the case. I can give a tangible example of where a £22 million investment was due, if you like, to the Department of Justice for COVID recovery. Less than £6 million of that came to the Department of Justice; the rest was absorbed by the Department of Health. If we continue to act in that way, my Department and the PSNI will continue to be underfunded. That is not a situation that you or I would wish to have in place. We need to work together to make a robust case. I agree that increasing officer numbers would be helpful, and that is part of the stabilisation process that we are now engaged in. In order to increase numbers, however, we have to first increase finances. We have to put the current service on a sustainable footing. The other thing that will help morale is ensuring that where officers are attacked in the street, or where they are pelted in riots, that is taken as seriously by the PPS and the courts as any attack on a member of the public. It affronts me, frankly, when I hear it reported, for example, that 40 people and four police officers were injured in a riot. Those four police officers are also people: they have families, and there are consequences. We need, more and more, to stop accepting that the police should be there as some kind of battering ram for society. We need to protect them, and I am hopeful that the legislation that is coming through next year will achieve that.
422 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.04 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.95).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.97).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.03 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.03 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.04 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.95 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.04 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.97 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.03 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.93 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.03 |
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.02 |
| Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism | 0.01 |
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.01 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:58 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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