PW_4_2023

Article

Walking in the Shoes of Another Deirdr Mahoney , Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) I remain operational on the Public Order Team. I am now lead for Advanced Witness & Suspect Interview Training , and Interview Advisor Training, at the Crime Faculty in Belfast, and as Lead for Advanced Witness & Suspect Interview Training, and Interview Advisor Training, at the Crime Faculty in Belfast. I have always loved interviewing, so I am immensely happy teaching my favourite subject. During my time at the Crime Faculty, I have completed an Advanced Diploma in Teaching and working towards a BSc in Criminology & Criminal Justice Systems. I am Chair of IPA Northern Ireland and Secretary of Police Tennis. I’m asked what it’s like to work in PSNI. I guess it’s just like Policing anywhere else really, the same highs, lows, sense of duty and pride, the same desire to make a small difference to the lives of those we come across in the course of our duty, and a desire to undo the wrongs against our communities. The big difference I suppose, is we are all functionally paranoid. Days start by checking under our cars for IEDs, telling our children that we’re checking for cats. This explanation works until they have that Santa moment, when they realise nobody else checks their car, and they become more aware of difficulties in our society which they can’t comprehend. Our children know to stay indoors until the car has been checked, indeed my own children have scolded me in the past, rushing them out the door for school with “but you haven’t checked for cats yet!” Driving to work we clock every vehicle in our neighbourhoods to ensure recognition, and note those we don’t. Coming home from work takes as long as it takes. The environment is checked continually to ensure it passes the paranoid test and, if in any doubt, you vary your route. Space is left between you and the car in front, and consideration given to your ease of escape. Particular attention is paid to your own neighbourhood and the environment of your own home, your safe (ish) place. Many of us have security cameras, mine are of great quality, invested in after an attack on a colleague. They make me feel more secure, and the joy of secretly watching my local badgers and foxes coming to dine and play in my garden is sheer bliss. None of us have set patterns; tables for restaurants get booked by others. Church attendance times vary, I never use my own name booking taxis, get my friends to book tennis courts, so nobody apart from my tennis buddies know I’m turning up until I do. My children have a different surname to me so that has been reassuring. I put my son in a private school at some expense, he didn’t get the school he had wanted, and I wouldn’t let him go to others near us in case they found out what I did, and harmed him because of that. He loved his school and made friends with other boys, whose police parents were paying to hide them away there too. We all lament the overtime we must do for the school fees. We have personal protection weapons; I can’t imagine living in Northern Ireland as a Police officer without one. Certainly, I pray I never have to use it.

I joined PSNI with great excitement in 2003, serving as a Detective since 2007. I have undertaken various investigative roles within serious and organised crime, including periods as a Financial Investigator, Digital Media Investigator and as a Family Liaison Officer. I worked on historic sex abuse investigations, terrorist Investigations, and even a secondment to the Dutch Police, working with their proactive Animal Crime Unit.

We are lucky the South of Ireland is only a short drive away. It’s amazing how quickly you can switch off when you are away from here. I suppose you are always on high alert without really realising it. I am a “blow in” to Northern Ireland however, I have no history here, which I always thought an advantage being in the Police. I feel quite anonymous, this always gave me added confidence interviewing terrorists, nobody knows me and for such interviews we use our numbers not names. Although we have now unbelievably suffered a data breach of details of every member of the force. So, all those numbers now have names, which is of course somewhat alarming. This breech has caused a great deal of anger, anxiety and huge concern for each other, like that felt when any among us is attacked. I have been a member of IPA since 2008. I think it is a marvellous organisation. I love that membership carries on after retirement, and we provide so many wonderful opportunities for both serving and retired members. I have visited NYPD Homicide, the German Police in Heidelberg. A high spot was visiting the French Police in Paris, where I marched in dress uniform up the Champs Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe, for a joint Military and Police service of remembrance at the Eternal Flame. My secondment to the Dieren Politie (Animal Police) was assisted by the IPA, and supported by PSNI, and is one of the best experiences of my career to date. I am proud of our organisation, and how we can assist our respective forces with opportunities for our colleagues that current police budgets cannot support. I am excited about the future of the IPA, and confident the mantel will pass on from this generation to the next and spread its wings further around the world.

POLICE WORLD Vol 68 No.4, 2023

11