NCJ Number
115644
Journal
Social Problems Volume: 33 Issue: 1 Dated: (October 1985) Pages: 41-55
Date Published
1985
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study examines the major reforms in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) over the past 15 years and the barriers to further progress toward normalized, demilitarized policing in the highly polarized conditions extant in Northern Ireland.
Abstract
Since 1970, the British Government has made a concerted effort to build a normalized, modern police organization -one that is publicly acceptable, accountable, politically neutral, ethnically representative, impartial, committed to use of minimum force, and primarily concerned with enforcement of the ordinary criminal law. Progress has been made in some areas. The RUC is more efficient, better trained, increasingly impartial, and more sensitive to its delicate position in the community. Yet, the RUC remains overwhelmingly Protestant in composition and is considered illegitimate by a significant proportion of the population. It is heavily armed and remains highly militarized and largely concerned with security duties. The RUC has become deeply entangled in the political struggle between State and the two main social forces. Within the highly charged environment of Northern Ireland, the police cannot be fully reformed so long as they are saddled with primary responsibility for internal security. At the root of the problem is the British attempt to address a political and security problem with a policing solution. The true solution lies in achieving a lasting political settlement that denies both insurgents and a paramilitary police their raison d'etre. 55 references. (Author abstract modified)