Royal Ulster Constabulary

synonyms: Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the name of the Northern Ireland police force from 1 June 1922 to 4 November 2001. During most of that period the RUC was almost entirely made up of officers drawn from the Protestant community - during the 1990s approximately 93 per cent of officers were Protestant. The force has come under a lot of criticism from the Nationalist community since its inception but particularly since the beginning of the current conflict. Following a period from 1969 to 1975 when the British Army had primacy in security matters, the RUC gradually took over the main responsibility for security. However, within the RUC itself Special Branch, the name of the RUC intelligence department, had primacy. A former Chief Superintendent alleged that: "From the running of informants, to arrests and raid operations or even surveillance, we needed Special Branch approval. And it was only given if it suited them." (source: 'Insight' programmme, UTV, 1 May 2001) During the 1990s the RUC had approximately 8,500 officers (The RUC Reserve was made up of 1,500 part-time and 3,200 full-time officers). 301 RUC officers have been killed during the current period of 'the Troubles'. During the same time the RUC were responsible for the deaths of (approximately) 52 people, of these 30 were civilians and most of the civilians were Catholics. Following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 a Commission was established to make recommendations on the future of the RUC. The Report of the Commission, the Patten Report, was published on 9 September 1999 and made 175 recommendations. Among the recommendations was a change to the name from RUC to Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). Reading: Ryder, Chris. (1992) The RUC: A Force Under Fire. (See also: Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI; and key issue of policing.)