PSNI slammed for paramilitary policing cutbacks

Anti-racist group End Deportations Belfast (EDB) has strongly criticised the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) for failing to reallocate resources to tackling paramilitary violence. This comes in the wake of violent racist pogroms carried out by loyalist mobs, which the PSNI now confirm paramilitaries played a role in coordinating.

As EDB note, in 2025 the PSNI chose to “collapse one of the three PCTF [Paramilitary Crime Task Force] investigative teams“. This followed Stormont’s decision to cut funding to the anti-paramilitary group by 21% for 2024/25. Upon the launch of the PCTF in 2017, the British National Crime Agency (NCA) described it as a:

Multi-agency taskforce set up in Northern Ireland to protect communities by tackling all forms of criminality linked to paramilitarism.

Westminster and the Northern Ireland Executive jointly fund the programme, which brings together the PSNI, the NCA and HM Revenue & Customs. EDB question why the PSNI hasn’t used its “annual budget of £929,701,000” to make up the shortfall stemming from Stormont’s cuts. This is a pertinent question, especially in the face of evidence suggesting paramilitary groups remain very active in the north of Ireland.

Funding shortfall as paramilitaries remain active

EDB point out how loyalist groups maintain significant manpower:

In 2020 a security assessment estimated UVF [Ulster Volunteer Force] membership at 7500 and UDA [Ulster Defence Association] membership as 5000. 28 years from the Good Friday Agreement this evidences proscribed organisations, not only continuing to operate and retain personnel, structures and control, but also continuing to recruit.

They also highlight the three consecutive summers of ethnic cleansing that loyalist groups have played a role in. After being slow to acknowledge the role of paramilitaries in the most recent violence, EDB cite assistant chief constable Davy Beck’s comment in which he said:

We are certain that members of loyalist paramilitary proscribed organisations were at a number of sites of the disorder, and were directing disorder at a number of those locations including East Belfast.

Republican paramilitary groups remain active too. Earlier this year, dissidents detonated a bomb outside a police station in Dunmurry, at the south west edge of Belfast. This followed a similar attempt earlier in the year at a police station in Lurgan. Paramilitaries continue to extort local businesses as part of ‘protection’ rackets.

The PSNI use a five-level threat assessment for dangers posed by paramilitaries to infrastructure, the public and PSNI staff. It currently sits at the third tier — “Substantial”. Given loyalist paramilitaries are repeatedly carrying out massive pogroms against people based on skin colour or migration status, that rating seems a little low. The EDB said the PSNI:

…seem unwilling to disrupt or dismantle loyalist paramilitary activities, structures and control.

The question of how reaction to the threat should be funded is complex. The PSNI point out they have a more restricted funding model than other police forces, saying:

Unlike their counterparts in England and Wales, the PSNI has no ability to raise revenue (it does not have access to a policing precept), the ability to maintain reserves, carry forward or borrow to invest. This latter situation is not suitable for a demand led emergency service. PSNI has consistently lobbied for a review of its financial structures.

There may therefore be potential legal issues if the PSNI attempts to use its general policing budget on something like the PCTF. The latter operates as a multi-agency initiative, rather than one purely under the auspices of the PSNI. That therefore prompts the question of whether Westminster should foot more of the bill. Stormont’s decision to cut funding raises questions for its decision making too, perhaps more than the PSNI itself.

Britain should foot bill for ongoing costs of its colonialism

The north of Ireland’s dysfunctional semi-devolved status continually leads to squabbling over funding. Local politicians typically demand Westminster should cough up more. On policing, the case is strongest for this position.

The PSNI faces enormous ongoing costs related to compensation payouts for legal cases stemming from the ‘Troubles’. The force says these are likely to run to over £1 billion over the next decade. The violence of that period stemmed from British occupation of Ireland, so it only seems proper that the British state ought to pay for the ongoing costs.

So too ongoing paramilitary criminality, a lingering malignancy from the same colonial past. As End Deportations Belfast point out, the PSNI could certainly save money by ceasing their involvement in racist immigration raids. In addition to their cost, an excessive focus on immigration further entrenches the narrative the far-right uses to whip up hate and violence. EDB told the Canary:

While the Paramilitary Crime Task Force goes under resourced, PSNI have instead poured resources into supporting the Home Office on extremely low-level immigration enforcement activities in a manner not typical of elsewhere in the UK.

Ultimately the siege mentality and supremacist attitudes built into loyalism require a massive cultural change before racist sentiment dwindles. It’s something policing alone can’t solve. It has some role to play, however, and cutting funding as paramilitaries stage now routine pogroms is another catastrophic case of austerian anti-logic.

Featured image via the Canary