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| Royal Ulster Constabulary | |
|---|---|
 Badge of the RUC | |
 Cap Badge of the RUC from 1970 onwards. | |
 Flag of the RUC | |
| Abbreviation | RUC |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 1 June 1922 |
| Preceding agency | |
| Dissolved | 4 November 2001 |
| Superseding agency | Police Service of Northern Ireland |
| Legal personality | Police force |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| National agency | Northern Ireland |
| Operations jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
 | |
| Map of Royal Ulster Constabulary's jurisdiction | |
| Size | 14,130 km2 (5,460 sq mi)[1] |
| General nature | |
TheRoyal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)[n 1] was thepolice force inNorthern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to theRoyal Irish Constabulary (RIC)[2] following thepartition of Ireland. At its peak the force had around 8,500 officers, with a further 4,500 who were members of the RUC Reserve.
The RUC policed Northern Ireland from the aftermath of theIrish War of Independence until after the turn of the 21st century and played a major role inthe Troubles between the 1960s and the 1990s. Due to the threat from theProvisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who saw the RUC as enforcing British rule, the force washeavily armed and militarised. Officers routinely carriedsubmachine guns andassault rifles, travelled in armoured vehicles, and were based in heavily fortified police stations.[3] It was the first police force to userubber andplastic bullets for riot control.
The RUC's membership was overwhelminglyProtestant, leading to accusations by sections of theCatholic andIrish nationalist minority of one-sided policing andsectarianism. Officers were also accused ofpolice brutality as well as collusion withloyalist paramilitaries.[4][5] Conversely, it was praised as one of the most professional police forces in the world by British security forces.[6] During the Troubles, 319 RUC officers were killed and almost 9,000 injured in paramilitary assassinations or attacks, mostly by the IRA, which made the RUC the most dangerous police force in the world in which to serve by 1983.[7][8][9] In the same period, the RUC killed 55 people, 28 of whom were civilians.[10] In 2000, the RUC was awarded theGeorge Cross for bravery.
The RUC was superseded by thePolice Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in 2001, as mandated by the final version of thePolice (Northern Ireland) Act 2000.[11] Allegations regarding collusion prompted several inquiries, the most recent of which was authored byPolice OmbudsmanNuala O'Loan in 2007. The report identified police,CID andSpecial Branch collusion with loyalist terrorists, but no member of the RUC has been charged or convicted of any criminal acts as a result of these inquiries. O'Loan stated in her conclusions that there was no reason to believe the findings of the investigation were isolated incidents.[12]
Under section 60 of theGovernment of Ireland Act 1920,Northern Ireland was placed under the jurisdiction of theRoyal Irish Constabulary (RIC). On 31 January 1921,Richard Dawson Bates, the firstMinister of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland, appointed a committee of inquiry on police organisation in the region. It was asked to advise on any alterations to the existing police necessary for the formation of a new force (i.e. recruitment and conditions of service, composition, strength and cost).[13]
| Constabulary Act (Northern Ireland) 1922 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act to provide for the establishment, management and control of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and to amend the law with respect to the appointment of Resident Magistrates and Special Constables in Northern Ireland, and for purposes connected therewith. |
| Citation | 12 & 13 Geo. 5. c. 8 (N.I.) |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 31 May 1922 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | |
Status: Repealed | |
An interim report was published on 28 March 1922, the first official report of the newParliament of Northern Ireland, and was subsequently accepted by the Northern Ireland Government. On 29 April 1922, KingGeorge V granted to the force the name Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).[13]: 13 In May, the Parliament of Northern Ireland passed theConstabulary Act (Northern Ireland) 1922 (12 & 13 Geo. 5. c. 8 (N.I.)), and the RUC officially came into existence on 1 June. The headquarters of the force was established at Atlantic Buildings, Waring Street,Belfast. The uniform remained essentially the same as that of the RIC – a dark green, as opposed to the dark blue worn by the otherBritish police forces and theGarda Síochána. A new badge of theRed Hand of Ulster on aSt George's Cross surrounded by a chain was designed but proved unpopular and was never uniformly adopted. Eventually the harp and crown insignia of theOrder of St Patrick, as worn by the RIC, was adopted.[2]
From the beginning the RUC had a dual role, unique among British police forces, of providing a normallaw enforcement service while enforcing the new Northern Ireland entity in the face of considerable opposition, both armed and unarmed.[13]: 13 To this end, its members were armed, as the RIC had been. The RUC was limited by statute to a 3,000-strong force.[13]: 268 Initially, a third of positions within the force were reserved forCatholics, a reflection of the denominational proportions of the population of Northern Ireland at that time. The first two thousand places were filled quickly and those reserved for Catholics were filled mainly by ex-RIC members fleeing north. Due to reluctance by the political establishment to employ too many Catholics (who were seen as potentially disloyal to theProtestant andunionist ethos of the new government) the force abandoned this policy. As a result, representation of Catholics in the RUC never exceeded 20%. In addition, many Catholics who joined the force, particularly during the Troubles, were targeted for murder or ostracised by their own community. By the 1960s, representation of Catholics in the RUC had fallen to 12%.[14]
The RUC were supported by theUlster Special Constabulary, a volunteer body of part-timeauxiliary police established before the Northern Ireland government was set up, who had already been given uniforms and training. The RUC's senior officer, the Inspector General, was appointed by theGovernor of Northern Ireland and was responsible to the Minister of Home Affairs in the Northern Ireland government for the maintenance of law and order.[13]: 20
The polarised political climate in Northern Ireland resulted in violence from both sides of the political and sectarian divide. The lawlessness that affected the region during the early 1920s, and the problems it caused for the RUC, are indicated in a police report drawn up by District Inspector R.R. Spears in February 1923. Referring to the situation in Belfast after July 1921 he stated:
For twelve months after that, the city was in a state of turmoil. The IRA (Irish Republican Army) was responsible for an enormous number of murders, bombings, shootings and incendiary fires. The work of the police against them was, however, greatly hampered by the fact that the rough element on the Protestant side entered thoroughly into the disturbances, met murder with murder and adopted in many respects the tactics of the rebel gunmen. In the endeavour to cope simultaneously with the warring factions the police efforts were practically nullified. They were quite unable to rely on the restraint of one party while they dealt with the other.[15]
About ninety police officers were killed between 1920 and 1922 in what would become Northern Ireland (seeThe Troubles in Northern Ireland (1920–1922)). The security forces were implicated in reprisal killings of Catholics but no convictions ever rendered. Most notable of these incidents were theMcMahon killings on 26 March 1922, in which six Catholics were killed; and theArnon Street killings several days later on 1 April 1922, in which six more Catholics were shot dead in retaliation for the IRA killing of a policeman.[16][17] By the mid-1920s the situation had calmed down; for the next forty-five years the murder rate in Northern Ireland would be lower than in the rest of the UK and the crime detection rate higher.[14]
The 1920s and 1930s were years of economicausterity. Many of Northern Ireland's traditional industries, notably linen and shipbuilding, were inrecession, which contributed to the already high level of unemployment. Serious rioting broke out in 1932 in Belfast in protest at inadequate relief for the unemployed.[18] In response to the growth of motorised transport, the RUC Traffic Branch was formed on 1 January 1930. In 1936 the police depot atEnniskillen was formally opened and an £800,000 scheme to create a network of 196 police barracks throughout Northern Ireland by rationalizing or repairing the 224 premises inherited from the RIC was underway.[13]: 22 In May 1937 a new white glass lamp with the RUC crest went up for the first time to replace the RIC crest still on many stations. About the same time theCriminal Investigation Department (CID) in Belfast was significantly expanded, with a detective head constable being appointed to head the CID force in each of the five Belfast police districts. There was sporadic IRA activity in the 1930s.[citation needed]
In 1937, on the occasion of the visit ofKing George VI andQueen Elizabeth to the province, the IRA blew up a number ofcustoms posts. In 1939 the IRA launched itsSabotage Campaign in England, which would end a few days before the outbreak of theSecond World War. The war brought additional responsibilities for the police: the security of the land border with theRepublic of Ireland, which remained neutral during the war, was one important consideration; smuggling greatly increased due torationing, to the point where police virtually became revenue officers; and many wartime regulations had to be enforced, including "black-out" requirements on house and vehicle lights, the arrest ofstriking workers, port security, and restrictions on the movement of vehicles and use of petrol.[19]
The RUC was a "reserved occupation", i.e. the police force was deemed essential to the domestic war effort and its members were forbidden to leave to join the other services. The wartime situation gave a new urgency to discussions regarding the appointment of women police. The Ministry of Home Affairs finally gave approval to the enrolment of women as members of the RUC on 16 April 1943, with the first six recruits starting on 15 November, headed byMarion Paterson Macmillan, who transferred from theMetropolitan Police. Post-war policies brought about a gradual improvement in the lot of the RUC, interrupted only by a return to hostilities by the IRAborder campaign from 1957 to 1962, in which seven RUC officers were killed. The force was streamlined in the 1960s, a new headquarters was opened atKnock, Belfast and a number of ruralbarracks were closed.[citation needed]
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Thecivil rights protests during the 1960s, and the reaction to them, marked the beginning of the conflict that became known as "the Troubles". The RUC found itself confronting marchers protesting againstgerrymandering of local electoral wards and discrimination in local housing allocation. Many of theseNorthern Ireland Civil Rights Association protests were banned or truncated by thegovernment of Northern Ireland. TheUlster Special Constabulary were controversial, with the unit seen by some nationalists as more anti-Catholic and anti-nationalist than the RUC, which, unlike the B Specials, did attract some Catholic recruits. The severe pressure on the RUC and the perceived partiality of the B-Specials led, during theNorthern Ireland riots of August 1969, to theBritish Army being called in to support the civil administration underOperation Banner. Catholics largely turned away from the British Army, who they saw as treating Protestants differently, especially after theFalls Curfew.[20][21]
The high level of civil unrest led to an exhaustive inquiry into the disturbances in Northern Ireland carried out byLord Scarman, which produced a report in 1972.[22]James Callaghan,Home Secretary in 1969, called on BrigadierJohn Hunt (Lord Hunt) to assess, advise and report on the policing situation. He was assisted in this task by SirRobert Mark, who later becameCommissioner of theMetropolitan Police Service, and Sir James Robertson, then-Chief Constable ofGlasgow. TheHunt Report was published on 3 October 1969, and most of its recommendations were subsequently accepted and implemented. The aim was to completely reorganise the RUC, both modernizing the force and bringing it into line with the other police forces in the UK. This meant the introduction of theBritish rank and promotion structure,[23] the creation of 12police divisions and 39 sub-divisions, the disbandment of the Ulster Special Constabulary,[24] and the creation of apolice authority designed to be representative of all segments of the community.[25]
Callaghan, later elected Prime Minister, asked SirArthur Young, Commissioner of theCity of London Police, to be seconded for a year. Young's appointment began the long process of turning the RUC into a British police service. The RUC Reserve was formed as anauxiliary police force, and all military-style duties were handed over to the newly formedUlster Defence Regiment, which was under military command and replaced the B Specials. Callaghan selected Young, a career policeman, because no other British policeman could match his direct experience of policing acutely unstable societies and of reforminggendarmeries. from 1943 to 1945, he was Director of Public Safety and Director of Security in the military government of Allied-occupied Italy. Later, he had been seconded to theFederation of Malaya at the height of theMalayan Emergency (1952–53) and to the crown colony ofKenya during theMau Mau rebellion (1954).[26]
The first deaths of the Troubles occurred in July 1969. Francis McCloskey, a 67-year-old Catholic civilian, had been found unconscious on 13 July near theDungivenOrange Hall following a police baton charge against a crowd who had been throwing stones at the hall. Witnesses later said they had seen police batoning a figure in the doorway where McCloskey was found, although police claimed that he had been unconscious before the baton charge and may have been hit with a stone. He was taken to hospital and died the following day.[27][28]
On 11 October 1969, Constable Victor Arbuckle was shot dead by loyalists on Belfast'sShankill Road during serious rioting in protest at the recommendations of the Hunt Report. Arbuckle was the first police fatality of the Troubles. In August 1970, two young constables, Donaldson and Millar, died when an abandoned car they were examining near the strongly republican town ofCrossmaglen exploded. They became the first security forces victims of theProvisional Irish Republican Army campaign. This campaign involved the targeting of police officers, and continued until the finalceasefire in 1997, as thepeace process gained momentum. The last RUC officer killed, Constable Francis O'Reilly (a Catholic), was also killed by loyalists, in a September 1998 bombing during theDrumcree conflict.[27]
In March 1972, theGovernment of Northern Ireland resigned and the parliament wasprorogued. Northern Ireland subsequently came under direct rule from Westminster with its ownSecretary of State, who had overall responsibility for security policy. From the mid-1970s onward, the British policy ofUlsterisation meant RUC officers taking a more prominent role in the conflict than previously, which increased their casualty rate. Starting in late 1982, a number of IRA andIrish National Liberation Army (INLA) men were shot dead by the RUC. This led to accusations of ashoot-to-kill policy by the RUC. In September 1983, four officers were charged with murder in connection with the deaths. Although all were subsequently found not guilty, theBritish government set up theStalker Inquiry to investigate further. In May 1986, SirJohn Hermon, thenChief Constable, publicly accused unionist politicians of"consorting withparamilitary elements".[29]
Anger over theAnglo-Irish Agreement led to loyalist assaults on more than 500 homes belonging to Catholics and RUC officers during the mid-1980s. At least 150 RUC families were forced to move as a result. In 1998 Chief ConstableRonnie Flanagan stated in an interview on television that he was unhappy with any RUC officers belonging to theOrange Order or any of the otherloyal orders. While the RUC refused to give any details on how many officers were members of the Order, thirty-nine RUC officers are listed on the Order's Roll of Honour (of 'Orangemen' killed in the conflict). The size of the RUC was increased on several occasions. At its height, there were 8,500 regular police officers supported by about 5,000 full-time and part-time reserve officers, making it the second largest force in the United Kingdom after the Metropolitan Police in London. The direction and control of the RUC was in the hands in the Chief Constable, who was assisted by two Deputy Chief Constables and nine Assistant Chief Constables. For operational purposes, Northern Ireland was divided into twelveDivisions and thirty-nine Sub-Divisions. RUC ranks, duties, conditions of service and pay were generally in line with those of police forces in Great Britain.[citation needed]
PolicingNorthern Ireland's divided society proved to be difficult, as each of the main religious blocs (Protestant and Roman Catholic) had different attitudes towards the institutions of the state.[30] To mostUlster Protestants, the state had full legitimacy, as did its institutions, its parliament, its police force and the Crown. Many of Northern Ireland's Catholics, along with their political leaders, believed that partition would be only temporary.[31][32] Many abstained from and/or refused to take part in Northern Ireland's institutions for a variety of reasons, including the treatment of Catholic civilians by the Ulster Special Constabulary during the recent conflict and the mistaken belief that Northern Ireland would be ceded to the Free State in the not too distant future.[33][34] Protestant fears of strategically important government services being infiltrated by Catholics disloyal to the new state polarised society and made most Catholics unwilling and/or unable to join either the police or the civil service.[2]
This mindset was referenced byDavid Trimble:
Ulster Unionists, fearful of being isolated on the island, built a solid house, but it was a cold house for Catholics. And northern nationalists, although they had a roof over their heads, seemed to us as if they meant to burn the house down[35]
In August 1922, Dawson Bates gave theOrange Order special permission for an Orange Lodge to be formed in the RUC. In April 1923 he spoke at its first reunion. In 1924John William Nixon, a District Inspector suspected of involvement in the murder of Catholic civilians, would be dismissed after widespread complaints that he had made a "fiercely Unionist" speech at an Orange Order function. An inquiry by the BritishNational Council for Civil Liberties in 1936 concluded that:
[I]t is difficult to escape the conclusion that the attitude of the government renders the police chary of interference with the activities of the Orange Order and its sympathisers.[36][37]
On 4 April 1922, the RIC was disbanded. Three days later, theCivil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922 came into force, and the Belfast government, although prohibited from raising or controlling a military force, appointed Major GeneralFrederick Solly-Flood as a military advisor. The RUC was to be 3,000-strong, recruiting 2,000 ex-RIC and 1,000 "A Specials". It was intended that half of the RIC men recruited were to be Catholic, making up a third of positions within the force. However, fewer than half the expected number of Catholics came forward and the balance was made up with more A Specials, who continued to exist as a separate force.[36]
Throughout its existence, republican political leaders and most Roman Catholic clerics discouraged Catholics from joining the RUC.[citation needed]Seamus Mallon,Social Democratic and Labour PartyMember of Parliament (MP) and critic of the force, who later served asDeputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, stated that the RUC was"97% Protestant and 100% unionist".[38][39] The RUC did attract someRoman Catholics, mostly former members of the RIC, who came north from theIrish Free State after the bitterness of the fighting during theAnglo-Irish War largely precluded them from remaining in territory now controlled by their enemies. The percentage of Catholics in the RUC dropped as these men retired over time.[citation needed]
Notable Catholics in the RUC include RUC Chief Constable SirJames Flanagan, who survived an IRA assassination attempt; Deputy Chief Constable Michael McAtamney; Assistant Chief Constable Cathal Ramsey; Chief Superintendent Frank Lagan,[40] and Superintendents Kevin Benedict Sheehy and Brendan McGuigan. In December 1997,The Independent (London) published a leaked internal RUC document which reported that a third of all Catholic RUC officers had reported suffering religious discrimination and/or harassment from Protestant fellow officers.[41]
According toThe Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC, written by RUC reservistRichard Doherty, 314 officers were killed and over 9,000 were injured during the existence of the RUC. All but 12 of the dead were killed during the Troubles (1969 to 1998), of whom 277 were killed in attacks byIrish republicans.[2] According to the CAIN project at theUniversity of Ulster, however,[42] 301 RUC officers and 18 former or retired RUC officers were killed, totaling 319 fatalities.[43]
TheNewry mortar attack by the Provisional IRA on an RUC station in 1985, which killed nine officers (including two Catholics), resulted in the highest number of deaths inflicted on the RUC in one incident. The two highest-ranking RUC officers to be killed during "the Troubles" wereChief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan, who were ambushed by theProvisional IRA South Armagh Brigade outside Jonesborough, County Armagh, on 20 March 1989. On 4 December 2013, in a report by judge Peter Smithwick in theSmithwick Tribunal (a public inquiry), it was alleged that members of the Republic's police force (Garda Síochána) had colluded in the killing of the two policemen.[44] The last RUC officer killed as a direct result of the conflict, Francis O'Reilly (a Catholic constable), died on 6 October 1998, a month after he had been injured in aRed Hand Defenders pipe-bomb attack inPortadown during theDrumcree conflict.[45]
On 1 July 1992,Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a detailed report, alleging RUC and paramilitary violations against children's rights duringthe Troubles. Both Catholic and Protestant children alleged regular and severe physical assault and mental harassment at the hands of RUC officers, usually conducted to force afalse confession of a crime.[46] In an accompanying statement, HRW cited allegations that:
Police officers and soldiers harass young people on the street hitting, kicking and insulting them. Police officers in interrogation centres insult, trick and threaten youngsters and sometimes physically assault them. Children are locked up in adult detention centres and prisons in shameful conditions. Helsinki Watch heard dozens of stories from children, their parents, lawyers, youth workers and political leaders of children being stopped on the street and hit, kicked and abused again and again by police and soldiers. And seventeen-year-olds told Human Rights Watch Helsinki of severe beatings in detention during interrogations by police.[47]
TheGood Friday Agreement (GFA) of 1998 produced a wholesale reorganisation of inter-community, governmental and policing systems, including a power-sharing executive. The bias, and the under-representation of Catholics and nationalists in the RUC led to, as part of the Good Friday Agreement, a fundamental policing review, headed byChris Patten, a former BritishGovernor of Hong Kong andConservative Minister underMargaret Thatcher. The review was published in September 1999. It recommended a wholesale reorganisation of policing, with the Royal Ulster Constabulary being replaced by thePolice Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), and a drive to recruit Catholics and the adoption of a new crest and cap badge. The PSNI was introduced in November 2001. As part of the change, the police service dropped the word "Royal" from and adopted a new badge that included the crown, harp, and shamrock, an attempt at representation of the major ideologies.[citation needed]
TheSpecial Patrol Group was formed in the late 1960s as the Police Reserve Force. The name was changed to avoid confusion with the newly formed part-time Police Reserve in 1970,[2] and was renamed "Divisional Mobile Support Unit" in 1980 after two of its members were convicted of kidnap and murder.[2] The two,John Weir andBilly McCaughey, implicated some of their colleagues in a range of crimes including giving weapons, information and transport to loyalist paramilitaries as well as carrying out shooting and bombing attacks of their own.[48] Weir alleged that senior officers, including Chief SuperintendentHarry Breen, were aware of and approved of their activity.
On 18 April 2003 as part of thethird report into collusion betweenUlster loyalist paramilitaries, RUC, and British Army, SirJohn Stevens published an Overview and Recommendations document (Stevens 3).[49] Stevens' intention was to make recommendations which arose from serious shortcomings he had identified in all three Inquiries.[50] In his autobiography, Stevens was at pains to point out the high regard in which he held many RUC officers, including Detective Superintendent Maurice Neilly, who was killed in the1994 Chinook air crash.[51]
The third Stevens Inquiry began in 1999, and referred to his previous reports when making his recommendations. Stevens' third inquiry focused in detail on only two of the killings in which collusion was alleged; that ofBrian Adam Lambert in 1987 and ofPat Finucane in 1989. Stevens used the following criteria as a definition of collusion while conducting his investigation:
On 12 December 2012 the British Prime ministerDavid Cameron admitted a statement to the House of Commons that "shocking levels of collusion occurred in the murder of Finucane."[53]
In a report released on 22 January 2007, the Police OmbudsmanDame Nuala O'Loan statedUlster Volunteer Force (UVF) informers committed serious crimes, including murder, with the full knowledge of their handlers.[54] The report stated thatRUC Special Branch officers created false statements, blocked evidence searches and "baby-sat" suspects during interviews.
Awards for gallantry for individual officers since 1969 included 16George Medals, 103Queen's Gallantry Medals, 111Queen's Commendations for Bravery and 69Queen's Police Medals.[55]
On 12 April 2000, the RUC was awarded theGeorge Cross for bravery,[56] a rare honour which had beenawarded collectively only once before, to the island nation ofMalta. The Award stated:
For the past 30 years, the Royal Ulster Constabulary has been the bulwark against, and the main target of, a sustained and brutal terrorism campaign. The Force has suffered heavily in protecting both sides of the community from danger – 302 officers have been killed in the line of duty and thousands more injured, many seriously. Many officers have been ostracised by their own community and others have been forced to leave their homes in the face of threats to them and their families. As Northern Ireland reaches a turning point in its political development this award is made to recognise the collective courage and dedication to duty of all of those who have served in the Royal Ulster Constabulary and who have accepted the danger and stress this has brought to them and to their families.[57]
The chief officer of the Royal Irish Constabulary was itsInspector-General (the last of whom, Sir Thomas J. Smith served from 11 March 1920 until partition in 1922). Between 1922 and 1969 the position of Inspector-General of the RUC was held by five officers, the last being Sir Arthur Young, who was seconded for a year from theCity of London Police to implement the Hunt Report. Under Young, the title was changed toChief Constable in line with the recommendations of the Hunt Report. Young and six others held the job until the RUC was incorporated to the PSNI. The final incumbent, SirRonnie Flanagan, became the first Chief Constable of the PSNI.[citation needed]
| Ranks 1922-1930 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inspector-General | Deputy Inspector-General | County Inspector | District Inspector 1st Class | District Inspector 2nd Class | District Inspector 3rd Class | Head Constable Major | Head Constable | Sergeant | Constable | ||
| (insignia of a brigadier) | (insignia of a colonel) |  |  |  |  | (insignia of a sergeant-major) | (crown above sergeant's stripes) |  |  | ||
| Ranks 1930-1970 | |||||||||||
| Inspector-General | Deputy Inspector-General | Commissioner | County Inspector | District Inspector 1st Class | District Inspector 2nd Class | District Inspector 3rd Class | Head Constable Major | Head Constable | Sergeant | Constable | |
| (insignia of a lieutenant-general) | (insignia of a major-general) | (insignia of a brigadier) | (insignia of a colonel) | | | | (insignia of a sergeant-major) | (crown above sergeant's stripes) | | | |
| Ranks 1970-2001 | |||||||||||
| Chief Constable | Deputy Chief Constable | Assistant Chief Constable | Chief Superintendent | Superintendent | Chief Inspector | Inspector | Sergeant | Constable | Reserve Constable | ||
 |  |  | | | | | | | | ||
The Royal Ulster Constabulary GC Foundation was established by virtue of thePolice (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 for the purpose of "marking the sacrifice and honouring the achievements of the Royal Ulster Constabulary".[66]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Condemned by republicans, nationalists and human rights groups for embodying sectarianism and lauded by British security forces as one of the most professional police operations in the world, the Royal Ulster Constabulary is one of the most controversial police forces in the UK.
In 1983, Interpol figures showed that Northern Ireland was the most dangerous place in the world to be a police officer, the risk factor being twice as high as in El Salvador, the second most dangerous.
(11) The rank structure should be reviewed (paragraph 97).(Extract-chapters 1.General Considerations about our Mission) & 10.Conclusions and Recommendations,only)
In Northern Ireland itself, nationalists faced some very difficult issues of community, struggle and power from those which faced their southern counterparts ... Many nationalists at the time of partition had assumed the division of Ireland to be a temporary one
Except in Irvinestown and Ballycastle, Nationalists and Sinn Fein refused to meet the Leech commission. The result was that local Unionist parties, with the enthusiastic co-operation of Dawson Bates, were able to dictate the positioning of boundaries with meticulous care to their own complete satisfaction. The results speak for themselves. Since many Catholics abstained in 1924, the best comparison is between the local election results of 1920 and 1927 ... Unionists countered criticism by pointing to the failure of Nationalists and Sinn Fein to make submissions to the Leech commission. Certainly by refusing to take their seats in the Northern Ireland parliament, Nationalists and Sinn Fein not only reinforced the Unionist view that they were intent on bringing down the state but also denied themselves a wider audience and a chance to obtain some redress from Westminster.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), bbc.co.uk, 22 January 2007; accessed 22 December 2014.{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)The Royal Ulster Constabulary GC Foundation was established by virtue of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 for the purpose of "marking the sacrifice and honouring the achievements of the Royal Ulster Constabulary".
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