Council head asks: ‘Can police cope?’

Council head asks: ‘Can police cope?’

5 December 2012

THE PSNI’s ability to cope with public disorder in the district without a local custody suite has been questioned after a serious disturbance followed the Christmas lights switch-on in Downpatrick.

Down Council chairman Mickey Coogan spoke out after Friday’s successful event was later marred by a group of up to 250 young people who stayed behind, and appeared to have prearranged the gathering.

Scenes of disorder and assault in St. Patrick’s Square were reported by onlookers shortly before 9pm, including one incident in which a girl allegedly had her head held by its hair and banged off the ground.

Councillor Coogan said he was speaking out reluctantly, as no-one wanted to take away from the event itself, but said serious problems with the processing of offenders had emerged and could not be ignored.

He said the removal of the custody suite from Downpatrick PSNI station over two years ago, followed by a trial period of taking those arrested to either Bangor or Banbridge for processing, meant there were simply not enough resources to cope with any significant trouble.

There are no longer holding cells available in any local police station if officers arrest someone in Down District. The offender has to be taken to Bangor or Banbridge with two or three police officers. Those officers have to remain at the station while the person is processed and can be away from the district for several hours.

“The night itself went very well and there was a lot of positive feedback, and it was great that a lot of the shops stayed open,” said councillor Coogan. “At about 8.40pm, however, large crowds of young ones began running about. Mostly everyone was having a bit of craic but small groups clearly had been drinking.

“It then transpired a young girl of 15 was taken into hospital after being assaulted. Police and council marshals also had to make a barrier against some of the crowds of young ones at the ambulance.

“One council official had to personally intervene on the night on four occasions.

“Police had one young fellow handcuffed beside the jewellers but 15 minutes later he was running around again. Clearly they did not arrest him.”

Councillor Coogan stressed he was not criticising the actions of the handful of police officers on the ground, stating that “they did the best with what they had”.

“The solution would have been to arrest some of them, but they could not as they would have had to have taken them to Bangor,” he said. That would have taken at least two officers away to Bangor.

“I just think it is absolutely insane that the new police station building at the Downshire complex was passed last week at council, yet there doesn’t appear to be any custody suite for the new building. We urgently need to be allowed to see these plans.

He continued: “It is ridiculous this issue with the custody suite has been going on for two years. On Friday night it became completely unmanageable for officers on the ground. The police were warned this would happen and now it has and and a young girl is in hospital.

“God knows who else was attacked because they had no record of this incident when I called them. Is that why they keep saying crime figures are going down?”

A spokesperson for Down Neighbourhood Policing Team said the Christmas light switch-on was an event attended by families and went “very smoothly with everyone enjoying themselves peacefully”.

“However a group of up to 250 young people between the ages of 11 and 17 stayed behind afterwards and our officers had to move quickly to disperse them,” said the spokesman.

“Local police believe that all of these children had prearranged to meet in The Square and indeed got changed from their school uniforms while travelling to the area. We would remind parents to show some responsibility for their children’s behaviour. We have identified some of those who were at The Square and have tried to contact their parents, however no one is returning our calls.

“At no time did we say that we were unable to arrest anyone involved as we had no cell facilities. In fact, one person was arrested for disorderly behaviour and assault on police and was taken home to his parents.

“An investigation into an assault on a 15 years old girl at the scene is continuing. Police are aware of local rumours that officers had to stand guard at the ambulance while the child was being treated. This is not correct. Officers ushered a number of concerned onlookers away from the ambulance.”