Police Assoc head: Not true 40 ex-soldiers recruited as SRPs

A report circulating on social media that 40 ex-soldiers have been recruited into the Special Reserve Police was dismissed yesterday by president of the Police Social and Welfare Association Insp Michael Seales.

Seales described the information as malicious, misleading and with the intent of creating dysfunction in the police service.

He admitted the membership had complained to the association after reading the information and this prompted an investigation by the association’s executive which showed the claim was not true.

“As a consequence of the post, the membership was claiming that these SRPs were coming to take the places of regular police officers in top positions, and they felt that the SRPs would be in charge of key areas, for example the firearm and finance sections, and they also felt that former members of the Defence Force were taking over the police service by being placed in these positions.”

Seales said the association had checked and found only two ex-soldiers had been assigned to the personal detail of the Commissioner of Police. He added that they would have been key peopple with strategic training, which would have been the reason for their recruitment.

Police Commissioner Gary Griffith has already said publicly that people with specialised training who can assist the police will be hired as SRPs and if some of them are ex-soldiers, so be it.