A PSNI officer has opened up on their frustrations at what they see as worsening morale among police ranks.
The officer, who did not wish to be named due to concerns for their job, told Belfast Live a "them and us" mentality was forming between senior ranks and those lower down.
They highlighted a perceived lack of support for when honest mistakes are made, poor pay and increasing workload as a reason for the malaise.
Read more: Police Federation Northern Ireland exploring industrial action for PSNI officers
The officer cited the way senior management responded to an Ormeau Road incident last year where two officers arrested a man who had attended a commemoration of a massacre at the Sean Grahams bookies in 1992.
The two officers had only joined the PSNI the previous year.
One was suspended, another repositioned and the Chief Constable Simon Byrne apologised amid calls for his resignation.
The officer who spoke to Belfast Live was not one of those who were involved in the Ormeau Road incident, but said many of their colleagues had been upset by the way in which it had been handled.
"People are thinking 'I've joined an organisation here to do my best, to protect life and property, but I'm being second guessed at every opportunity'," they said.
"Policing is a human endeavour and you will make mistakes and if you own up to those mistakes, there should not be an issue.
"They had an honestly held belief that what they were doing was right and they were hung out to dry immediately.
"There's no other emergency service would tolerate that, not a hope.
"People have the impression they're being thrown under the bus, that claims of support are lip service."
The officer went on to say that in their opinion, relations between senior ranks and those lower down the chain have not fully recovered from that incident and a divide exists.
"It's not forming, it's already formed, it's there, it's just them and us," he said.
"You used to have a glimmer of hope but especially with the Ormeau Road stuff, when you see stuff like that there you question why we're being hammered into the ground and senior officers aren't.
"It honestly feels like a two-tier system.
"Every week we will have weekly orders - very rarely would you see dismissals on that but you see them now and again, it's usually constables and sometimes sergeants, very occasionally inspectors, but never anybody above that rank."
The current PFNI Chair Liam Kelly acknowledged the perception that less experienced officers were being unfairly treated.
"Because there are more constables and sergeants in the police service, generally they would be the people who would be in that front facing role and therefore in the forefront of disciplinary matters," he said.
"But that's the perception that is there, that if they make a genuine honest mistake, there's an expectation that they'll be thrown under the bus whereas somebody that has more service or rank would be looked on more favourably.
"There are less senior officers proportionately, so disciplinary matters arising would tend to be the exception rather than the norm due to that.
"But that's not to say that senior officers are not subject to discipline, they are."
Belfast Live has also seen figures that show 49 officers resigned during their probationary period (first two years service), in 2021/22.
""The 2022/3 figures will be an eye opener," the officer warned Belfast Live.
"I know for a fact that there are people who have joined in the couple of years that have looked at it and gone to get financial advice.
"And they've gone 'why am I doing this for like £1500-1800 a month when I can go to, say Amazon, and clear £2500 a month'?
"It's crazy and why am I jeopardising my life and also I'm under so much scrutiny, where if I put a foot wrong I could be fired at any time.
"Younger people have balanced it up and said 'do you know what? I'm out of here'."
PFNI Chairman Liam Kelly agreed that pay and conditions were big factors in decision making by those leaving the service.
"We see on a weekly basis internally those that are moving around or leaving the service.
"We have noticed particularly in the last year, that there are a large number of those officers that are at the lower end of their policing service, the probation period is usually the first two years of their service.
"The starting salary for a police officer is just over £21,500 a year but what some people fail to realise is that 13% of that money is taken out to pay towards pension.
"That has a massive impact on what the take-home pay actually is.
"There's also a skills and mentoring gap at local level - what they're finding is that there's not much experience in the sections that they're attending to.
"The older hand, the experienced officers are moving in towards neighbourhood policing roles and other functions - those that are at the lower end of their service are being mentored by people who have roughly the same level of service."
The officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said reduction in police numbers and police stations had made the job much more stressful too.
"Nowadays you have massive geographical areas and you're expected to be in places ASAP, so there's a lot of stress and strain that way," they said.
"Then here are certain sections like Public Protection who deal with all the rape and child offences and their workload has gone through the roof.
"Officers are getting burnt out and they're going off sick and the more they go sick, the more workload is being piled onto other people.
"I know anecdotally of some officers that have gone from uniform duties to become a detective and have turned round a few years later as they can't do it and they go back to uniform duties.
"Sometimes you get the feeling it's being run like a business as opposed to a law enforcement agency."
Liam Kelly agreed that the lack of police numbers was having a huge impact and said the blame for that lay at Stormont.
"Because of the failure of our local government to increase police numbers, what we've found is police numbers are going backwards and reducing at quite a rapid rate," he said.
"It means officers are feeling they're having to do a lot more and not getting the support they need to perform that function.
"Year on year we get very high levels of officers saying their morale is in freefall."
The PSNI's Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said the police service took the welfare of its officers seriously and that it was a "top priority".
“We are a policing organisation. It is a high risk, high demand and high stress profession for officers and staff of all ranks," he said.
"The best asset that we have is our people; we want to invest in them and we want to support them, so feedback like this is taken incredibly seriously.
“We have made significant investment in our health and wellbeing and this will continue to be a priority for us as a Police Service.
"We will continue to work with the Police Federation and other staff associations to address the issues which are within our control. ”
READ NEXT:
- PFNI complain of "total disregard" for police funding
- Covid brought PSNI officers into conflict with normally law-abiding people, says Police Federation
- 'Palpable anger' among police officers over pay
- PSNI officers at Sean Graham bookmakers memorial 'did not intend to cause offence', Police Federation says
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here. To sign up to our FREE newsletters, see here.
