A Clean Bill of Health?PFC:

national | miscellaneous | news report

Monday October 21, 2002 16:44

by Andrew

Report of the Police Ombudsman on the use of plastic bullets

The PFC response to the report of the Police Ombudsman on the use of plastic bullets April 2001 to March 2002.

This October the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child called on the UK Government to ban plastic bullets. Yet in May of this year the Office of the Police Ombudsman released a report into the use of plastic bullets by the RUC/PSNI which appeared to give a 'clean bill of health' to plastic bullets. The PFC is now releasing a detailed critique of the Ombudsman's report.

The criticisms in the critique include:

- The Ombudsman's attempt to distance the new L21A1 plastic bullet from the old L5A7 plastic bullet and the fourteen fatalities and numerous very serious injuries caused by it.

- The Ombudsmanís assertion that the L21A1 is more accurate, and by implication safer, than the L5A7. Available scientific evidence demonstrates that it is in fact much more dangerous.

- Having distanced the 'baton round' from the 'plastic bullet' the report purports to examine seven incidents where 'baton rounds' (not plastic bullets) were used. In fact two of the seven incidents involved the older plastic bullet, the L5A7.

- The Ombudsman's failure to make it clear that her report covers less than a third of the plastic bullets fired by the RUC/PSNI during the period in question. It covers just 36 plastic bullets, at least 120 were fired by the RUC/PSNI between April 2001 and March 2002.

- That the report does not make clear that the investigations not included in the report actually constitute a majority of the incidents involving plastic bullets.

- That the report relies heavily on the RUC/PSNI versions of events, with little or no attempt to include accounts from civilian witnesses, local community leaders or interested NGOs, which contradict the police version.

- That the report will have a 'chilling' affect on those who may wish to log complaints regarding the use of plastic bullets with the Ombudsman's office.

- That the Research Report is in effect providing a 'clean bill of health' to plastic bullets.

A spokesperson for the PFC said: "The Research Report was the first major report of the Ombudsman's office into the use of plastic bullets. It is our view that this report is seriously flawed and will be used by those who argue for the retention of this lethal weapon."

The full PFC report is available online at www.serve.com/pfc. The Ombudsman's report can be accessed at http://www.policeombudsman.org/main/publications.htm