Police Service Of Northern Ireland Research Articles

Desmond Rea and Robin Masefield. Policing in Northern Ireland: Delivering the new Beginning?

This book outlines the development of policing reform in Northern Ireland (NI) between 1999 and 2009; largely from the perspective of the first Chair of the NI Policing Board with some early year insights from the government perspective. Heretofore accounts of progress were largely narratives on attainment of targets, now for the first time we have a qualitative ‘insider’ account. However, an overview of the process remains partial until those of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the Police Ombudsman become known. The book describes some of the key challenges dealt with by the Board in isolation from other concurrent issues underplaying the enormity of what the Board achieved. Readers should be mindful that reform took place while policing continued to be delivered and in the face of a number of competing demands connected to the wider peace process including violence from dissident republicans and party politics. The politicking the Board had to mediate was based on competing viewpoints, on one hand policing was the problem and must change; whereas for others the problem was those using violence for political purposes, thus if violence stopped the police could revert to a more community focused service.

Shadow policing: the boundaries of community-based ‘policing’ in Northern Ireland

The intention of this article is to provide a structural and operational analysis of policing beyond the police in Northern Ireland. While the polity enjoys low levels of ‘officially’ recorded crime as part of its post-conflict status, little empirical analysis exists as to the epistemological roots of security production outside that of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The empirical evidence presented seeks to establish that beyond more prominent analyses related to paramilitary ‘policing’, the country is in fact replete with a substantial reservoir of legitimate civil society policing – the collective mass of which contributes to policing, community safety and quality of life issues. While such non-state policing at the level of locale was recognised by the Independent Commission for Policing, structured understandings have rarely permeated governmental or academic discourse beyond anecdotal contentions. Thus, the present argument provides an empirical assessment of the complex, non-state policing landscape beyond the formal state apparatus; examines definitions and structures of such community-based policing activities; and explores issues related to co-opting this non-state security ‘otherness’ into more formal relations with the state.

Dealing with the Past in Northern Ireland: An Inventory

The paper was presented at an event entitled ‘What Next? Dealing with the Past in Northern Ireland,’ in Belfast on 25 May 2012. The event was organised by the Transitional Justice Institute at the University of Ulster. The paper considers the various mechanisms established by the state to deal with the legacy of the thirty year conflict. These include the Police Ombudsman's Office, the Historical Enquiries Team of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Coroner's Office as well as initiative such as the Consultative Group on Dealing with the Past. It critically examines these mechanisms and concludes that together they do not constitute a comprehensive truth recovery process.

Leading the Police Service of Northern Ireland – ten years and beyond

PurposeThis paper sets out to review leadership development since the inception of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in 2001, its developments over the past ten years, and to look at the opportunities and challenges for the future. It considers the new leadership strategy for policing in Northern Ireland.Design/methodology/approachThis paper explores how leadership development has been considered before, during, and after the change process for policing in Northern Ireland. Through synthesis of available information, learning materials and documents, it identifies and reviews the key models, theories and approaches used for leadership and management development within the PSNI and the approach considered necessary for success in the future.FindingsThe PSNI has progressed significantly from policing the 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland, where inward focus was more prevalent than the external partnership and collaborative approach that is needed today and in the future. The change from the Royal Ulster Constabulary to the new Police Service of Northern Ireland required leadership to deliver the transformation required. A new leadership development strategy is vital if operational policing is to continue to enhance public confidence at a time of renewed terrorist threat.Practical implicationsPublic sector organisations are currently facing great change in order to ensure they are able to meet the challenges of globalisation, technology, demography and the world financial crisis. Leaders can learn from the experience of the Police Service of Northern Ireland in the transformational change process which took place over the past ten years and how it intends to meet the future challenges facing a smaller service with reduced funding.Originality/valueThis review comes ten years after the establishment of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. It provides insights into the leadership development which supported the transformational change process within Northern Ireland.

Paramilitary punishments in Belfast: policing beneath the peace

As an enduring legacy of the conflict, paramilitary policing remains an unpalatable but indisputable fact within Belfast's working-class, Republican communities. Historically, while much attention has been devoted to the causes and consequences of paramilitarism along with the terrorist threat posed by such organizations, little attention has been paid to the influence upon, or relations between, such nonstate policing actors, the communities in which they exist and the delivery of policing by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. While local and international literature surrounding paramilitary violence has tended towards political axiom or physical impact of such activity, the current paper presents an empirical study of the relations between communities and Republican paramilitary organizations who seek to exploit a perceived dearth of state-based policing at the community level within Belfast. Framing the ontology of paramilitary policing and its support from a community, rather than political or security perspective, the paper argues that continuing grass-roots support for this ‘new’ paramilitary policing within Republican communities of Belfast is more complex and nuanced than the political antecedents of the conflict from which such activity emerged – especially in terms of such support surviving successive political negotiations and police reforms since the ‘Good Friday’ Agreement of 1998.

‘Trinity Mysteries’: responding to a chaotic reading of Irish history

In April 2011, a 25-year-old member of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Ronan Kerr, was killed when a bomb exploded under his car. The murder, which was claimed by dissident Republica...

Trends in admission to hospital for assault in Northern Ireland, 1996/97-2008/09

The aim of the study is to investigate in-patient admission trends for assaults in Northern Ireland. Of particular interest was whether trends in the hospital data increased in line with police statistics, or decreased in line with the Northern Ireland Crime Survey, and paramilitary style punishment attacks. Time-series analysis of Northern Ireland hospital inpatient data, 1 April 1996 until 31 March 2009, obtained from the Northern Ireland Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety was performed. For comparative purposes, police data for 'wounding/grievous bodily harm with intent' and punishment attacks were obtained from the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Data were standardized using rate per 100 000 people. The hospital in-patient data set comprised a total of 25 412 cases, over the period of 1 April 1996-31 March 2009. Inpatient admissions for assault-related injuries peaked in 2001/02 (n = 2297). The majority of assaults treated over the entire period was from bodily force (62%, n = 15 874). A 23% decline was observed for hospital admission rates for assault-related injuries. This decreasing trend was found for all types of assaults. The greatest decline was for assault by firearm discharge (55%). The decline in assault-related hospital admissions is in contrast to the increase reported police data, supporting findings from previous studies. Similar decreasing trends in the hospital and punishment attack data are also identifiable, particularly for Belfast.

Exploring Home-Grown Transitional Justice and Its Dilemmas: A Case Study of the Historical Enquiries Team, Northern Ireland

There is a growing recognition of the need for home-grown solutions to transitional justice issues rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. In part, this reflects the commonsense view that without local ownership of transitional justice processes, there is unlikely to be domestic buy-in and sustainability. Despite its growing popularity, the concept of local or home-grown transitional justice is ambiguously defined. It is frequently insufficiently spelt out, used interchangeably and applied uncritically. This article uses a case study of the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) to explore the concept of home-grown transitional justice and posit preliminary questions. The HET is a bespoke unit set up by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to re-examine deaths attributable to the conflict in Northern Ireland and answer the unresolved questions of families of conflict victims. The work of the HET is unique and innovative in the world of policing. In transitional justice terms, it breaks new ground as a micro-level information-recovery mechanism. This article argues that the current euphoria for ‘all that is local’ may be in danger of overlooking important considerations, such as who are ‘the locals’ and whose interests are being served. It raises further questions about issues of ownership, trust and legitimacy. The article concludes that there needs to be clarification of concepts, as well as more careful evidence-based analysis of what constitutes home-grown transitional justice and what such a process might conceal.

‘From thorn to thorn’: commemorating the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland

Although the literature on memorialisation often stresses the role of the national, there is a growing understanding of the polyvalency and dispersal of memory. Here, we address the rather difficult process of memorialising the security forces of a state which denies that it was a participant in a conflict. In Northern Ireland, the British state pursued a policy of ‘Ulsterisation’ of security forces, the result being that the memorialisation of their dead is either a partisan unionist process or confined to private institutional space because these forces were seen as an impediment to the Peace Process. We focus in particular on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) which was disbanded in 2001. The paper establishes the context for commemorating both the RUC dead but also the institution itself, a dimension to commemoration that has been largely elided from the vast literature on the Troubles in Northern Ireland and their consequences. We then examine the non-state memorialisation of RUC personnel in public space within Northern Ireland, an ambiguous and fragmented process that is then contrasted with the formal but closed institutional space of the RUC George Cross Garden, sited within the bounded and heavily monitored precincts of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Headquarters at Knock in east Belfast.

Community policing in Northern Ireland: a resistance narrative

Policing in stable democratic societies is predominantly concerned with the implementation and practice of the globally accepted philosophy of community policing. However, the subtle complexities of Northern Ireland's transitional landscape present acute problems for the community policing concept, both as a vehicle for police reform and as a tool for increasing the co-production of security through improved community interaction with the police. This article will examine the current position of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and their Policing with the Community policy. Providing an overview of contextual and contemporary developments, it will assess the efficacy with which the PSNI have realised community policing, as espoused in Patten Recommendation 44. It concludes by determining the role and extent of community engagement with policing in Northern Ireland and the resistances and contestations to the implementation of the community policing in a post-conflict society.

Diversifying from within: Community Policing and the Governance of Security in Northern Ireland

The subtle and complex nature of Northern Ireland's transitional landscape presents acute difficulties for the community policing concept. As the core to the police reforms in the country, its implementation has faltered in the face of institutional inertia within the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). This has been further exacerbated by a failure of the police to adequately increase the co-production of security through improved engagement and utilization of Northern Ireland's diverse community infrastructures. This paper will assess the delivery of community policing by the PSNI, while exploring their engagement with Northern Ireland's grass-roots community organizations, and specifically those involved with the governance of security at the local level. Thus, through a framework of adaptation, engagement and delivery of community policing by the PSNI within the unique context of Northern Ireland's security ‘otherness’, the paper will explore the key issues to police-community interaction associated with the broader vision of the Independent Commission on Policing (ICP) on community policing.

A retrospective audit of the extent and nature of domestic violence cases identified over a three year period in the two district command units of the police service of Northern Ireland

The work load of forensic medical officers (FMOs) who provide medical cover for the Coleraine and Limavady district command units (DCU) of the police service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in dealing with domestic violence was investigated over a three year period from 1st April 2003 to 31st March 2006. A total of 128 cases involving domestic violence were identified during this three year period. There was a significant increase from 4% (32/791) in the first year to 6.6% (56/851, p<0.01) in the number of cases of identified domestic violence in the second year which dropped to 4.2% (40/956) in the third year. Victims were identified in 38% of these domestic violence cases with 62% being identified as assailants. It was noted that there was a significant difference in the proportion of male assailants (96.2%) from female assailants (3.8%). Fifty-four percent of victims were noted to have injuries in accordance with the more serious injury categories of assault of actual bodily harm (AOABH) and grievous bodily harm (GBH). Domestic incidents occurred at the home in 91% of cases, with the FMO being the primary contact in 97% of cases. Alcohol was implicated in 56% of all domestic violence cases recorded.

Vocational training in higher education: a case study of work‐based learning within the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)

The pre‐eminence of knowledge and skills as the sources of wealth creation and economic growth is one of the major issues in business at the beginning of the twenty‐first century. As a result, Human Resource Development has been propelled into a central role in management thinking. However, this has not always been reflected in practice since many of the methodologies for monitoring and assessment continue to reflect the previous importance of fixed capital, the industrial society and the quantity of labour employed. The police service like other public services has had to ensure that its staff is skilled to undertake an ever more complex role within society. This has traditionally been delivered through typical organisational training processes. The value of learning as opposed to training is rarely proposed. The ‘soft’ benefits of education, elements like critical thinking and emotional intelligence as well as learning, are rarely given sufficient emphasis. However, increasingly organisations are realizing the benefits of creating an open environment that allows informal learning to flourish. This article will explore the concepts of traditional training within policing before reviewing as a case study the introduction of a work‐based and experiential learning paradigm within police development.

Cobbles And Confetti

It is still too early to divine if the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) will be any more successful in riot control in Belfast than its constabulary predecessors, but the disturbances of s...

Learning the Lessons: Peacemaking in Israel and Northern Ireland

Learning the Lessons: Peacemaking in Israel and Northern Ireland

Policing the past to police the future

In the 32 years following 1966 more than 3200 people lost their lives in Northern Ireland. Over 1800 of these deaths are recorded as unsolved by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). The families' perspective is different and in very few cases have all their queries have been resolved. This paper examines the creation of The Historical Enquiries Team (HET), a unique concept in world policing, which is an imaginative attempt to bring some form of resolution to families of victims of ‘The Troubles’,1 by reviewing the deaths of their loved ones and seeking to answer questions that remain, for them unresolved. Modern police investigations are all supported by use of trained analytical staff, using bespoke technology to provide support and insight to senior detectives. The HET has invested heavily in analytical support, both in supporting the PSNI Analytical Department to develop and manage the Historical Enquiries Analytical Database (HEAD) and in the provision of dedicated, on site Analysts. The intention is that by using the latest analytical techniques, they assist in identifying potential suspects for individual cases, potential witnesses and linkages between cases through trends, description, ballistics, etc. They will also provide a holistic review of all cases related to the security situation during the period under review, in order to identify trends and methodology and thereby identifying the involvement of individuals, groups or organisations as potential suspects. The HEAD database, currently being refined, updated and tested, will be the dominant IT application and will underpin the collation, recording, retention and analytical functions of the HET review and re-investigation process. While it has useful facets in terms of administrative management, its primary use will be as an analytical tool.

‘It's their word against mine’: young people's attitudes to the police complaints procedure in Northern Ireland

One of the central aims of the police reform process in Northern Ireland has been to increase the legitimacy of the policing structures and police officers amongst those who are served and policed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). To meet this aim, structures have been created to ensure that the PSNI is accountable to all sections of the community for its strategy and performance, and in monitoring the attitudes and behaviour of its officers. To that end, the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI), the Northern Ireland Policing Board and 26 District Policing Partnerships have been created. This paper aims to break ground by looking in some detail at young people's attitudes to and experiences of the workings of one of those new bodies, the Police Ombudsman, and to explore issues related to young people's willingness to engage with the PONI.

Human rights in the new training curriculum of the Police Service of Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is attempting to move from a divided society model of policing to a democratic policing model. One of the key components of the reform agenda is the issue of human rights. A key test of the attempt to place human rights at the forefront of the reforms is the attempt to integrate human rights into every aspect of police training. In this article, the new training curriculum of the Police Service of Northern Ireland is examined to determine whether and how human rights are being integrated into the training modules in an effort to better understand the dimensions of democratic police reforms. Field observations of training sessions indicate that a holistic approach to human rights is being employed in addition to a legalistic approach.

Fantasy Politics? Restructuring Unionism after the Good Friday Agreement

The current arrangements are not a settlement, but a process of concessions--concessions that have turned conventional wisdom on its head. Government policy has been to reward those who do wrong whilst punishing those who want to be democratic. What kind of peace process is that? Democracy must not be held to ransom by gunmen. (1) Peter Robinson, Deputy Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party While most Protestants welcomed the improved atmosphere arising from the peace process and the cease-fires, they remained suspicious of the motives of those involved, including the Labour government, Dublin, the SDLP and, particularly, Sinn Fein. Although they stood to gain from the restoration of devolved government and nationalist endorsement of the principle of consent, they had lost, at least psychologically, by having to include Sinn Fein in the new administration. They were fearful for the long-term future of the British link, with devolved structures evolving in Scotland and Wales and with nationalists given equal representation with unionists in the 10-member executive. (2) Barry White, Belfast Telegraph INTRODUCTION Politics in Northern Ireland is again in no small state of upheaval and confusion. The strength of political division was reflected directly in the November 2003 Assembly election, when the Democratic Unionist Party (hereafter DUP) and Sinn Fein emerged as the two largest political parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly. (3) Not surprisingly, the election accelerated the erosion of the already tenuous center ground, with the Women's Coalition losing both of its representatives and the Alliance Party reduced to six seats. Among nationalist parties, Sinn Fein's 23.5 percent of the vote far outpaced the Social Democratic and Labour Party (hereafter SDLP), which received only 17 percent of the poll. The changes in the electoral map were even more dramatic within unionist politics, where the DUP claimed victory over the Ulster Unionist Party (hereafter UUP), a result that certainly reinforced its claim to be the true voice of Ulster unionism. As the strongest opponents of any political settlement, the DUP demonstrated the ability to mobilize large sections of the unionist community behind its position. (4) Overall, the election results again highlighted increasing levels of unionist disillusionment with the arrangements outlined in what is known as the Belfast Agreement, or more commonly, the Good Friday Agreement, (5) and the workings of the Northern Ireland Assembly. (6) The prelude to the election demonstrated the fragility of the political accord. The British government suspended the Northern Ireland Assembly in October 2002. Direct rule from Westminster was again imposed, widely perceived as the only short-term solution to increasingly tense political discord in Northern Ireland. This, the fourth suspension of devolved government in Northern Ireland since February 2000, occurred after it became clear that the working relationships upon which the power-sharing government rested could no longer be sustained. (7) Political tensions predictably centered on unionist opposition to Sinn Fein's participation in government. Much of this was triggered by a series of controversies involving Sinn Fein that included the arrest of three IRA members in Colombia accused of training FARC rebels, (8) and a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) raid on Sinn Fein's Stormont offices on suspicions that an IRA spy ring was operating within the Assembly. The two DUP Assembly ministers, Peter Robinson and Nigel Dodds, reacted by resigning from their posts, refusing to share power with Sinn Fein. Moreover, the Assembly's First Minister, David Trimble, threatened to withdraw UUP ministers if Sinn Fein were not immediately excluded. While Sinn Fein members angrily denounced the foray as a politically motivated stunt, many unionists emphasized republicans' seeming refusal to fulfill the terms of the agreement, particularly the section that stated that objectives should be pursued solely by peaceful, democratic means. …

A Model of Costs and Benefits of Training in the Police Service of Northern Ireland

This article is concerned with research carried out in the Police Service of Northern Ireland to develop a model of costs and benefits of training. It provides a blueprint for use by those who practise planning, decision making and management every day in the police organisation in order that they can solve the most crucial problem in training: how to decide on good quality and relevant training interventions within limited resources. The model has three systems: an Awareness System that sets out the culture and understanding of the organisation; the Operational System which includes identification of the needs, achieving the training outputs, delivering quality products, evaluating the products to test its value and worth and costing all of these issues under a standard costing process; and the third system is the Monitor and Control System which maintains the overall system.