‘Police CAN deal with incidents across district boundaries’

The story doing the rounds is that officers attached to the PSNI’s D District arrived at the scene of a traffic accident on the Moybrick Road, Dromara, where a car with children on board had overturned, only to advise bystanders to call Banbridge police, as the accident scene lay within their, neighbouring, E District.

One Dromore woman who heard the tale said, “We were told that a few weeks back there was an accident on the Moybrick Road; a car overturned with kids inside.

“I don’t know if they were supposed to have been called or just arrived on the scene, but we were told police stopped on their side of the bridge and said they couldn’t cross the district boundary, so members of the public had to go to the aid of the passengers.

“If it’s true that police can’t cross the boundary lines it’s a very serious issue, particularly when they’re proposing to close Dromore Police Station.” Without additional details to aid in establishing the facts, police were unable to specifically address the alleged incident at Moybrick Road.

However, a spokesperson said that in general terms there should be nothing to impede officers from policing across district boundaries.

Should officers find themselves dealing with a matter in a neighbouring district, where there was no immediate threat or urgent issue, they might indeed advise the public to contact the relevant command.

But otherwise - “If police from one district arrive at an incident outside that district,” he said, “they should cope with the scene, advise local officers and remain until their arrival.”