Police Functions and Service Section 20: Core policing principles
60.Subsection (1) inserts a new section 31A in the 2000 Act setting out what are considered to be core policing principles. It provides that police officers must carry out their functions with the aim of securing the support of the local community, and of co-operating with the local community. They must also be guided by the code of ethics issued by the Board under section 52 of the 2000 Act. This requirement is not new: it currently appears in section 32(4) of the 2000 Act, but as it affects the way the police carry out their other functions, it sits more easily in the new section 31A. Subsection (4) makes consequential amendments.
61.Subsection (2) amends section 3 of the 2000 Act. It obliges the Board, in carrying out its functions, to monitor the performance of the police in complying with the community policing core principles set out in the new section 31A(1). Subsection (3) obliges the Board to include an assessment of the performance of the police in this respect in its annual report. Subsection (5) amends section 27 of the 1998 Act, which deals with PSNI members on secondment or “relevant service” to other police services. The effect of the amendment is that a member of the PSNI on relevant service will be treated for the purposes of new section 31A as if he were still a member of the PSNI.