Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland

The office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI) was established (on 3 November 2000) under the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998 to provide an independent impartial police complaints service in which the public and the police have confidence. The office of the Police Ombudsman has more than 100 staff, and is the only completely independent police complaints investigation unit in the United Kingdom. The Police Ombudsman is appointed for a period of seven years. The first Police Ombudsman was Nuala O'Loan. She began as Police Ombudsman Designate early in 2000. After preliminary work the office of the PONI was opened in New Cathedral Buildings, Belfast, on 3 November 2000. O'Loan's tenure ended on 6 November 2007. O'Loan was replaced by Al Hutchinson. There were complaints that under the leadership of Hutchinson the office of Police Ombudsman had lost some of its independence due to political interference. It was also alleged that draft historical reports, critical of the RUC, were amended to reduce such criticism before publication. Three reports about the working of the office of Police Ombudsman were published in 2011 (McCusker report; CAJ report; and CJINI report). Following the criticism, Hutchinson announced that he would stand down in January 2012. Dr Michael Maguire took over the role of Police Ombudsman on 17 July 2012. Mrs Marie Anderson was appointed Police Ombudsman in July 2019. List of some PONI publications