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Sinn F\u00e9in is opposed to the next Northern Ireland police chief being appointed from within the organization, Mary Lou McDonald has indicated.<\/p>\nSinn F\u00e9in is opposed to the next Northern Ireland police chief being appointed from within the organization, Mary Lou McDonald has indicated.<\/p>\n
The party president said she did not have confidence in any of the current senior PSNI command team to succeed George Hamilton after he retires in June.<\/p>\n
Mrs McDonald said the PSNI had \u201czero credibility\u201d in its handling of cases linked to the legacy of the Troubles.<\/p>\n
Her comments came after she met bereaved families caught up in a controversy involving the police\u2019s failure to disclosure documents about historic killings to Northern Ireland\u2019s Police Ombudsman.<\/p>\n
After the meeting in Belfast, Ms McDonald was asked if she had confidence in any of the current leadership team to replace Mr Hamilton.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n
The Sinn F\u00e9in leader added: \u201cIs there somebody inside who I think should be the chief constable, and I have to answer honestly that no, I can\u2019t identify such a person.<\/p>\n
\u201cLots of this is about who leads, who is in the top job in policing, but it goes much more broad than that. This is an issue of the culture of policing, it\u2019s about the systems and it\u2019s about their capacity to be and to be held fully accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, it emerged that the PSNI failed to disclose \u201csignificant information\u201d relating to a notorious loyalist mass shooting.<\/p>\n
Police Ombudsman Michael Maguire said \u201csignificant, sensitive information\u201d around the incident at a bookmakers in south Belfast was not made available to his investigators.<\/p>\n
Five people were killed on February 5 1992, when members of the Loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) opened fire on the Sean Graham bookmakers shop on the lower Ormeau Road.<\/p>\n
Dr Maguire\u2019s office said the non-disclosed material, which it has now obtained, has opened new lines of inquiry in its investigation into the Ormeau Road shootings, as well as activities of loyalist paramilitaries in the north west between 1988 and 1994, and its probe into the murder of teenager Damien Walsh at a coal depot in west Belfast in 1993.<\/p>\n
Last week, PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Stephen Martin apologized on behalf of the police and said they never sought to withhold the information from the ombudsman investigators, putting the incident down to human error.<\/p>\n
Mrs McDonald, Sinn F\u00e9in vice president Michelle O\u2019Neill and other party figures met a number of the impacted families at a community center close to the scene of the Ormeau Road shootings on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The party members also met with police commanders earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
Afterwards, Mrs McDonald was scathing in her assessment of the police.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have made absolutely clear to the PSNI that they have zero credibility in their dealing with legacy cases,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have made it clear to the PSNI that their very cynical strategy and policy of withholding information or selectively disclosing some information and holding back the rest is entirely cynical, it\u2019s entirely unacceptable and it has dealt another blow to confidence in policing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, more importantly, it has confirmed for very many families who have been waiting almost a lifetime in some cases, it has confirmed again that the policing authority in this state is not capable and not willing to act in an honorable, in a truthful and I would say in a fully democratic fashion when it comes to telling the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n