Chief Constable Matt Baggot told the policing board last week he has no intention of retaining the full time reserves. The remaining three hundred plus reserves are being phased out under the Patten recommendations. Only about 100 of these are on the ground involved in security duties according to a PSNI source. Mr Baggot is not of the opinion that any appreciable expertise will be lost in the event of the reserves going. The police federation is legally active claiming a lack of consultation on the demise of the full time reserves.
This is not altering the course of action set in train. An overall review of deployment of resources is taking place inside the PSNI in the face of the dissident threat described as ‘severe.’ This development will not please Peter Robinson. Neither will the fact that there is no mention of ‘personal protection weapons’ for former police officers in the Gordon Brown financial package.
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