CARNAGE WILL HAUNT OFFICERS
Carnage will haunt officers
By Chris Ryder
RUC officers, together with the other frontline emergency services, routinely deal with the grim aftermath of sudden deaths, fires and road accidents, suicides and all too often in this turbulent society, multiple deaths resulting from violent terrorism. But the Omagh bombing has exceeded even the standards of horror police have become accustomed to during 30 years of ruthless violence here.
Just how traumatic it was for the officers concerned was revealed by Seamus Mallon, the deputy first minister, who found grown men crying inside Omagh police station on Saturday evening bloodied and grimy with dust from the rubble at the blast scene.
No matter how many times you see the immediate effect of accidental or violent death, according to one long serving police officer, you never become immune to it. The emotional reaction to an incident as grave as this will likely haunt all those most intimately involved for the rest of their lives.
In the early days of the troubles, when there was a macho culture in the RUC supervisory officers would put a couple of bottles on the desk and those who had dealt with a serious or gory incident would share a few stiff drinks to unwind. Nobody would admit to being upset.
Inevitably the strain began to tell. At least 55 officers committed suicide and a 1988 survey showed that one in 10 RUC officers was suffering from a stress related condition: anxiety, ulcers, alcoholism or marital problems. By then it had been recognized that post traumatic stress was a treatable condition and the RUC was taking pioneering steps to do so by establishing an Occupational Health Unit. Ten years on the force now has a highly sophisticated and effective approach to the stress problem.
As part of an increasingly preventive stress management programme, every officer involved in events since Saturday will already have been offered specialist counselling and any other support necessary.
Dealing with an incident as serious as the Omagh bombing imposes an incredible burden throughout the RUC. From the first origins of the incident, clearing the area around the courthouse, the police will have activated tried and practised operational plans.
At headquarters in Belfast, two major responses will have been initiated. Assistant Chief Constable Freddie Hall, head of the Special Branch, will have ordered his desk officers to begin compiling reports, detailing all recent intelligence about dissident republican organisations and individuals suspected of carrying out the bombing.
They will also have talked to their counterparts in the Garda to exchange up-to-date notes. The surveillance teams observing suspects will also have been enhanced in case it is decided to pull people in for questioning to account for their recent movements.
Early yesterday, the chief constable announced that the special task force is to be run by Chief Supt Eric Anderson, the RUC's most senior detective, and supervised by Assistant Chief Constable Raymond White, head of the Criminal Investigation Department.
Their first step will have been to establish an incident room, where every fact, scrap of information and every witness statement will progressively be fed into a Holmes computer system, specifically developed by the police to manage large scale intensive investigations.
Anderson has already ordered a detailed search of the rubble in Omagh, with the emphasis on finding anything that will allow him to trace the origins of the red Vauxhall car which is thought to have contained the bomb.
Where the twists and turns of the investigation will finally lead and whether it will result in the ultimate arrest and conviction of those who conceived and carried out the attack remains to be seen.
Asked about the chances of a successful outcome Anderson replied judiciously: "I am an optimist".
Chris Ryder is the author of The RUC A Force Under Fire.
By Chris Ryder
RUC officers, together with the other frontline emergency services, routinely deal with the grim aftermath of sudden deaths, fires and road accidents, suicides and all too often in this turbulent society, multiple deaths resulting from violent terrorism. But the Omagh bombing has exceeded even the standards of horror police have become accustomed to during 30 years of ruthless violence here.
Just how traumatic it was for the officers concerned was revealed by Seamus Mallon, the deputy first minister, who found grown men crying inside Omagh police station on Saturday evening bloodied and grimy with dust from the rubble at the blast scene.
No matter how many times you see the immediate effect of accidental or violent death, according to one long serving police officer, you never become immune to it. The emotional reaction to an incident as grave as this will likely haunt all those most intimately involved for the rest of their lives.
In the early days of the troubles, when there was a macho culture in the RUC supervisory officers would put a couple of bottles on the desk and those who had dealt with a serious or gory incident would share a few stiff drinks to unwind. Nobody would admit to being upset.
Inevitably the strain began to tell. At least 55 officers committed suicide and a 1988 survey showed that one in 10 RUC officers was suffering from a stress related condition: anxiety, ulcers, alcoholism or marital problems. By then it had been recognized that post traumatic stress was a treatable condition and the RUC was taking pioneering steps to do so by establishing an Occupational Health Unit. Ten years on the force now has a highly sophisticated and effective approach to the stress problem.
As part of an increasingly preventive stress management programme, every officer involved in events since Saturday will already have been offered specialist counselling and any other support necessary.
Dealing with an incident as serious as the Omagh bombing imposes an incredible burden throughout the RUC. From the first origins of the incident, clearing the area around the courthouse, the police will have activated tried and practised operational plans.
At headquarters in Belfast, two major responses will have been initiated. Assistant Chief Constable Freddie Hall, head of the Special Branch, will have ordered his desk officers to begin compiling reports, detailing all recent intelligence about dissident republican organisations and individuals suspected of carrying out the bombing.
They will also have talked to their counterparts in the Garda to exchange up-to-date notes. The surveillance teams observing suspects will also have been enhanced in case it is decided to pull people in for questioning to account for their recent movements.
Early yesterday, the chief constable announced that the special task force is to be run by Chief Supt Eric Anderson, the RUC's most senior detective, and supervised by Assistant Chief Constable Raymond White, head of the Criminal Investigation Department.
Their first step will have been to establish an incident room, where every fact, scrap of information and every witness statement will progressively be fed into a Holmes computer system, specifically developed by the police to manage large scale intensive investigations.
Anderson has already ordered a detailed search of the rubble in Omagh, with the emphasis on finding anything that will allow him to trace the origins of the red Vauxhall car which is thought to have contained the bomb.
Where the twists and turns of the investigation will finally lead and whether it will result in the ultimate arrest and conviction of those who conceived and carried out the attack remains to be seen.
Asked about the chances of a successful outcome Anderson replied judiciously: "I am an optimist".
Chris Ryder is the author of The RUC A Force Under Fire.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0008
Published Date: 17-Aug-98
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