PSNI: Archbishop encourages young Catholics to join police

Archbishop Eamon Martin said his support for Catholic police employees was "unequivocal"

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland has encouraged young Catholics to consider a career in policing.

The Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin was speaking after meeting Northern Ireland's Chief Constable Simon Byrne on Wednesday.

It comes after a major breach of data from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

The mistakenly-released data included the surnames and initials of 10,000 officers and employees.

On Tuesday, Mr Byrne said the information is now in the hands of dissident republican paramilitaries, who could use the list of names to generate "fear and uncertainty".

The threat to officers means they must be extremely vigilant about their security.

Many, especially those from Catholic communities, keep their employment secret, in some cases even from many family members.

Catholic officers have often been targeted by dissidents, who want to discourage people from Catholic backgrounds from joining the police.

During a meeting with the chief constable, Archbishop Martin said he expressed concern at the implications of the data breach.

Archbishop Martin met Simon Byrne on Wednesday

Speaking to BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster programme, the archbishop said his support for Catholic police employees was "unequivocal" after speaking to several of their families.

He said relatives of the employees were "shocked and concerned" following the data release.

"Twenty-five years on from the Good Friday Agreement we're still talking about the importance of keeping our police members and their support workers safe." he said.

"Any normal society would have extensive respect and support for the police service - we wouldn't be in a situation where people are afraid if people know they're in the PSNI.

'A noble vocation'

Archbishop Martin said it was unconscionable that PSNI employees should feel this way.

"This is considered across the world a noble vocation, something that should be natural for our young people to consider and we all need to play our part in making that a reality," he said.

Last week, Mr Byrne apologised for what he described as a breach of data on an "industrial scale".

It was one of two breaches which emerged over a two-day period, causing considerable concern among PSNI officers and staff who face continuing threat from paramilitaries and must be extremely vigilant about their personal security.

In the wake of the data breach, nearly half of Northern Ireland's officers have contacted the Police Federation about potential damages.

• How did Northern Ireland police data breach happen?

• Why police in Northern Ireland are still targets

• NI police details in hands of dissident republicans

The first, and biggest, breach happened when data was made public in error by police responding to a routine Freedom of Information (FoI) request.

The information appeared online for three hours last Tuesday, leading the PSNI to update its security advice to its officers and staff.

The surname and initials of every employee, their rank or grade, where they are based and the unit they work in, including sensitive areas such as surveillance and intelligence, were included.

Information about a second data breach, involving the theft of a spreadsheet with the names of 200 officers and staff, emerged the following day.

The PSNI said documents, along with a police-issue laptop and radio, were believed to have been stolen from a private vehicle in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, on 6 July.