Network Support Officer (NSO) Petition

The PSNI Network Support Officer’s roles and responsibilities are primarily internal, serving the needs of police officers and recruits from the LGBT, BME and Women’s sectors. They developed partnership approaches and working practices with the community sector organisations within their brief and provide a vital service to officers within the PSNI, giving advice, support, sign posting, developing information services and providing a comfortable and experienced listening ear.

The PSNI took the decision to remove the NSO posts from the Service. These posts were hard fought for within the respective sectors and seen as a mechanism of improving relations with these sectors and the PSNI.

The PSNI response to removing this post is that they are satisfied that the services that they currently have in place are sufficient to fulfil the role of the NSO’s. The Rainbow Project (TRP), and others, disagree fundamentally with this assessment and feel that the removal of these posts will severally undermine the confidence in the service for current officers from these sectors as well as any new potential recruits.

Petition

I the undersigned object to the Police Service of Northern Ireland removing the three Network Support Officers for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community, the women’s sector and the ethnic minority community. These posts have a proven track record of delivery and the removal of this service will only serve to set back community relations.