Long tells police- "if you know where weapons are then do something about it"

3.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 29th Jul 2008

Alliance Deputy Leader Naomi Long MLA

Alliance Deputy Leader Naomi Long MLA has told police that if they know where loyalists are keeping their weapons then they should recover those weapons to prevent them from being used in any crimes. Her comments follow a statement from Assistant Chief Constable Peter Sheridan who has warned loyalists that they better decommission their weapons before the decommissioning window closes as he has intelligence as to the location of loyalist arms dumps.

Naomi Long MLA said: "It should not be a matter of the police waiting for loyalists to decommission their weapons, if they know where any weapons are then they should act on that information and recover them. It would be good if loyalists decommissioned their own weapons but the police should not be sitting on their hands waiting for them to do so.

"The police have a moral obligation to take every illegal weapon off our streets to make sure that no crimes are carried out using these weapons.

"There may be forensic evidence on these weapons on crimes carried out that they were used in that may be lost if they are handed over to be decommissioned."