BBC NI - Schools - Agreement - Policing - Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland (2)

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20 February 2015

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Image of Ian Paisley Jr addressing the Patten Commission in Ballymena

The DUP's Security Spokesman, Ian Paisley Jr, addresses the Patten Commission in Ballymena, 30 November 1998

Opinions were mainly polarised between those who wanted the RUC disbanded because of its human rights abuses and those who wanted to preserve it in tribute to the officers killed or maimed. The Conservative Party and the numerous Unionist parties argued for the retention of the RUC name. In its submission the Conservative Party rejected what they described as the "bitter, twisted and distorted view propagated by Sinn Féin/IRA that the RUC is a sectarian force or that it is inherently unacceptable to the minority community in Northern Ireland". The various Unionist parties concurred with this view and highlighted the RUC's "heroic record" in its defence of the community against terrorism.

The nationalist and republican perspective submitted by the SDLP, Sinn Féin and the Catholic Church sought much more radical change with Sinn Féin calling for the RUC to be disbanded. However, there was consensus among republicans and loyalists for a community based police service that would be responsive to local needs.

Links to audio and video selections can be found on the last page.

Publication of Patten report

When the Patten Commission's report on policing in Northern Ireland was published on 9 September 1999 it was immediately slammed by the Unionist parties, cautiously welcomed by the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) while Sinn Féin reserved judgement until it was discussed fully with their members and local community leaders.


Key Newspaper Articles
	An uncivilised report
	Patten anger over Trimble remark
	A remarkable look at the future

Image of the front cover of the Patten Commission Report on Policing

Patten Commission Report on Policing published in Belfast, 9 September 1999

The report makes 175 recommendations including many that confirmed Unionist fears that the RUC would be radically transformed. The new ethos of the police service is to be based on the principles of human rights: "It is a central proposition of this report that the fundamental purpose of policing should be, in the words of the Agreement, the protection and vindication of the human rights of all."
Some of the proposals on which a new police service should be based are:

-	Royal Ulster Constabulary to be renamed the Northern Ireland Police Service.
-	Badge and symbols altered to make them free from association with either the British or Irish States.
-	New oath expressing commitment to human rights.
-	Police Authority to be replaced by a 19-member Policing Board including ten members drawn from the Northern Ireland Assembly.
-	Generous financial terms for officers leaving the RUC.
-	Special Branch and CID (crime branch) to merge.
-	Catholics and Protestants should be recruited on a 50-50 basis to increase minority representation to 30 per cent in ten years. The RUC is currently 92 per cent Protestant.
-	GAA should repeal membership ban on Crown forces.
-	The RUC anti-terrorist interrogation centres in Belfast, Londonderry and Armagh to close and all interviews of suspects recorded on video.
-	Steps to improve police transparency, with the presumption everything should be available for public scrutiny unless it is in the public interest-not the police interest-to hold it back.
-	There should be increased co-operation with police in the Irish Republic with secondment of officers between Northern Ireland and the Garda Síochána.
-	An international commissioner should oversee changes over the next five years.
-	Plastic bullets to stay, but research mounted into an alternative as a matter of urgency.
-	Each of the 26 District Councils in Northern Ireland should establish a District Partnership Board-with the Belfast board having four sub-groups covering North, South, East and West of the city. Councils to have powers to raise three pence in the pound towards additional policing in their area.
-	Policing with the community should be a core function of the police service.
-	Policing to be devolved to the Executive as soon as possible.


Key Academic Opinions
	Policing and Human Rights after the conflict

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