Police Service of Northern Ireland

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) (Irish: Seirbhís Póilíneachta Thuaisceart Éireann) is the police service that covers Northern Ireland. It was started on 4 November 2001. The old police service for Northern Ireland was the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The service is based in Cherryvalley, east Belfast. The current Chief Constable is Simon Byrne. The old Chief Constables were Sir Hugh Orde OBE,Sir Ronnie Flanagan OBE and Colin Cramphorn.

Support for the police

All the big political parties in Northern Ireland support the PSNI. Earlier, the political party Sinn Féin, who have many supporters, did not support the police. But after the St Andrews Agreement they decided to support them after a special Ard Fheis about the police on 28 January 2007. In September 2005 the PSNI started the Historical Enquiries Team to help solve 3,269 murders that happened during the Troubles. The Northern Ireland Policing Board make sure that the PSNI are fair and do a good job. The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland investigates complaints about the police. The current Police Ombudsman is Al Hutchinson. The last Ombudsman was Nuala O'Loan. She was the Ombudsman until November 2007.

Number of Roman Catholics in the PSNI

The PSNI gives 50% of its jobs to Roman Catholics and 50% of its jobs to people who are not Roman Catholic. This is because many people think there are not enough Roman Catholics in the PSNI. By 2006, 20% of PSNI policemen were Roman Catholic. Only 8.3% of policemen in the old Royal Ulster Constabulary were Roman Catholic. About 30% of the force will be Roman Catholics by 2011.

Uniform and symbols

The colour of the PSNI uniform is green. The PSNI badge has Saint Patrick's saltire on it and six other symbols. They are the scales of justice, the harp, the torch, the olive branch, the shamrock and a crown. The flag of the PSNI is the badge in the centre of a dark green field.

Related pages

• Police force statistics for Northern Ireland

Other websites

• Police Service of Northern Ireland
• Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland website
• PSNI Roll of Honour Archived 2008-06-20 at the Wayback Machine