'Police treated war memorial protest differently than Black Lives Matter, says Ombudsman

The PSNI approach to investigating a Protect Our Monuments protest at Belfast City Hall contrasted with how the force dealt with Black Lives Matter protests the same month, police ombudsman Marie Anderson has said.

Mrs Anderson said the lack of consistency is "likely to compound damage to confidence in policing within the black, Asian and minority ethnic community".

Her report concluded that the police investigation into a protest organised to protect war memorials in Belfast on June 13 2020 was "closed prematurely" following a failure to access and exploit intelligence which may have led to the identification of the protest organisers.

She added that the outcome was in contrast to the prompt identification by police of persons suspected to have been the organisers of Black Lives Matter protests earlier that month, a number of whom were reported to the Public Prosecution Service.

The protests occurred at a time when public restrictions were in place due to the Covid pandemic.

The ombudsman previously published a report in December 2020 about the policing of the Black Lives Matter protests. It did not identify systemic racism issues but did make a series of recommendations to address concerns and assist in building trust between those communities and police.

She then decided to conduct an investigation into the conduct of officers who policed the Protect Our Monuments protest, which was organised to defend war memorials amid a number of attacks on statues of historical figures at the time.

The ombudsman said she established the existence of police intelligence linking a number of individuals in an organisational capacity to the protest.

There was, Mrs Anderson said, an error in submitting a request for intelligence and a lack of follow-up when no response to the request was received.

In addition, the ombudsman said there was no evidence that the senior investigating officer took other relevant information relating to intelligence into account and the case was closed.

Mrs Anderson has made a policy recommendation that the PSNI considers the introduction of target response times for intelligence requests, including the compulsory provision of appropriate responses to officers where no intelligence was available.

"In conducting an investigation, a police officer is required to pursue all reasonable lines of enquiry and it is evident this did not occur in this instance," she said.

"Viable lines of enquiry existed if the available intelligence had been accessed and in my view the senior investigating officer did not carry out a thorough and careful investigation.

"I had recommended disciplinary proceedings, which could not be progressed by PSNI as a result of the officer's retirement.

"However, I also made policy recommendations in relation to the systemic failing in how PSNI handled intelligence and these have been partially addressed which I welcome.

"I also welcome the work of PSNI since December 2020 to address the recommendations made as a result of my Black Lives Matter investigation to build confidence in policing and ensure these communities experience policing on an equal footing.

"It is only through proactive engagement with these communities that a comprehensive insight can be secured into the level of trust and confidence they have in policing.

"This is now being reflected in the work of the PSNI Strategic Community Engagement Team which is seeking to proactively identify a variety of issues of concern within black, Asian and minority ethnic communities."

Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said the PSNI accepted the recommendations made by the Police Ombudsman.

He added: "These protests occurred against a backdrop of an unprecedented health crisis and rapidly changing legislation.

"During this time a key objective was to help slow the spread of the virus to keep people safe.

"Balancing this against our obligation to safeguard other important rights - such as the right to peacefully protest - was not easy and we have previously accepted that as a service, we didn't always get that balance right.

"We continue in our work to implement the lessons learned from this period and are determined to improve relationships and build confidence and trust in policing among all communities in Northern Ireland."

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