Ms Eimear Fisher:

We examined whether it was a black-and-white situation. We looked at a situation where we want police officers to do police work and civilians to civilian work, in whatever way once this word is used. It is not black and white, and we recognise there are situations where a police head is needed to look at certain issues, which may not be operational. We are not black and white about it and there are some shades of grey. There are certain nuances about functions where we may need some police involvement. There are legacy issues with regard to moving from a police environment and member assignment to particular situations to purely civilian situations. We recognise this also.

According to our evidence, there has not been significant change in the movement towards civilianisation or professionalisation. Something which supports this assertion is that the crime investigation report contained a recommendation on divisional administration and the amalgamation of districts and divisional administration units, but we have no evidence this has happened to date, and that was a year ago. This is the answer to the question.