The Police Service of Northern Ireland (Irish: Seirbhís Póilíneachta Thuaisceart Éireann, Ulster Scots: Polis Servis o Norlin Airlan) is the police force that serves Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary which, in turn, was the successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary in Northern Ireland.
The RUC was renamed on 4 November 2001 as a result of a ten-year reform plan for policing set up under the Belfast Agreement. This agreement required the creation of an Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, which became known as the Patten Commission after its chairman, Chris Patten. He originally proposed the name Northern Ireland Police Service; however the abbreviation NIPS was thought inappropriate for a variety of reasons. The final decision included in the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 was to rename the force to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (incorporating the Royal Ulster Constabulary), to be shortened to the Police Service of Northern Ireland for operational purposes.
All major political parties in Northern Ireland, nationalist and unionist support the PSNI. At first the political party Sinn Féin, which represents about a quarter of Northern Ireland voters, had refused to endorse the PSNI until Patten's recommendations were implemented in full. However, as part of the St Andrews Agreement Sinn Féin announced its full acceptance of the Police Service of Northern Ireland at a special Ard Fheis on the issue of policing on 28 January 2007.
The other major nationalist party in the region, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), has joined the Northern Ireland Policing Board and says that it is satisfied that the Patten recommendations are being implemented. In the summer of 2005, the SDLP's Alex Attwood estimated that 80% of Patten's recommendations had been implemented.
In September 2005 the PSNI established the Historical Enquiries Team to investigate the 3,269 unsolved murders committed during the Troubles.
Read more about Police Service Of Northern Ireland: Organisation, Jurisdiction, Education, Accountability, Recruitment, Policies, Uniform, Headquarters, Chief Constables, Ranks
Famous quotes containing the words northern ireland, police, service, northern and/or ireland:
“For generations, a wide range of shooting in Northern Ireland has provided all sections of the population with a pastime which ... has occupied a great deal of leisure time. Unlike many other countries, the outstanding characteristic of the sport has been that it was not confined to any one class.”
—Northern Irish Tourist Board. quoted in New Statesman (London, Aug. 29, 1969)
“Consider the islands bearing the names of all the saints, bristling with forts like chestnut-burs, or Echinidæ, yet the police will not let a couple of Irishmen have a private sparring- match on one of them, as it is a government monopoly; all the great seaports are in a boxing attitude, and you must sail prudently between two tiers of stony knuckles before you come to feel the warmth of their breasts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
“Warmest climes but nurse the cruelest fangs: the tiger of Bengal crouches in spiced groves of ceaseless verdure. Skies the most effulgent but basket the deadliest thunders: gorgeous Cuba knows tornadoes that never swept tame northern lands.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Come, fix upon me that accusing eye.
I thirst for accusation. All that was sung.
All that was said in Ireland is a lie
Breed out of the contagion of the throng,
Saving the rhyme rats hear before they die.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)