A. The RUC
Here are four very different views of the RUC:
A. `The RUC are a professional police force. They stood
up against terrorists for 30 years. They have upheld
law and order. They are our brothers and sisters, husbands
and wives. We know them, we play golf and do business
with them. They never bothered anyone unless they were
criminals'.
B. `The RUC should be abolished. They were part of the
British Government's repression of Nationalists in Northern
Ireland. They took part in state executions. They colluded
with Loyalist murderers. They are an all-Unionist force
and so have no place in the future of Northern Ireland'.
C. Nationalists think they're the only ones who suffer
from the police. They're wrong. We suffer from them
all the time. They back Sinn Fein's agenda. They block
Protestant marches. They beat up our young people. And
you never hear any talk about this on the media. The
Protestant victims are invisible'.
D. `We in the RUC are political pawns, kicked around
by both sides. They use us when they need us and hate
us when they don't. Over 350 of our colleagues have
been murdered. We have been burnt out of our homes,
and our families live in fear. We're piggy in
the middle at Drumcree. We never get any recognition'.
Question
What do you think of the RUC? In your answer take account
of the feelings of groups who differ from you.
B. Key issues about policing in the future
If we are to move forward in Northern Ireland we need
to find some agreement over policing. We could spend
all our time arguing about the past. However, it may
be more useful first to ask what we really need from
a police service and secondly what is the best way to
provide this. That is what this pamphlet tries to do.
But remember, the 'us' asking this question is all of
us with all our different traditions. So we need answers
which all of us find respectful, no matter what our
background is.
1. Priorities:
Some of the issues ordinary police work deals with
are:
-- drug abuse;
-- traffic control;
-- anti-social behaviour;
-- checking broken windows in Northern Ireland Housing
Eecutive houses;
-- missing persons;
-- joy riders;
-- domestic violence;
-- child abuse.
Question: What do you want a police service to
do in future?
2. Membership:
A. Numbers
The RUC -- full-time and part time Reserve -- has
13,456 members. Britain has pproximately 1 police
officer to 400 people in the population, Northern
Ireland has about 1 to 120. If we had the same ratio
here we would have about 4500 officers. That would
mean a reduction of 9000.
B. Groups represented in police:
At the moment the RUC is approximately 93% Protestant
and 7%Catholic; About 90% are male and 10% female;Other
minorities are under-represented such as Travellers,
gays, lesbians and Ethnic minorities like South-East
Asians; A minority of police officers come from deprived
housing estates.
Questions:
B. Community Policing
Community policing means different things to different
people.
Here are three different understandings:
a) The community control the police;
b) The police choose to listen to the community if it
suits them;
c) The community and the police work in partnership.
Questions:
-- What do you mean by community policing?
-- How would you deal with the tension between giving
the police independence on the one hand, and giving
the local community real power over decisions on the
other?
-- Should paid community representatives accompany police
as they do their work, both to observe the police and
to build relationships between them and the community?
C. Cooperation
The police cannot do their job without the support of
the local community. If the community is unwilling to
help, criminals get off scot free. Police Community
Liaison Committees, which are made up of local police
officers and community representatives, in theory are
meant to help co-operation.
Questions:
