The Royal Ulster Constabulary
Initially, the British army opposed Ulsterization because it would require the police to take the lead in the security field (which the military considered premature) and because it would place frustrating restraints on army operations.[56] Likewise, the police were reluctant to assume primary responsibility for security or undergo militarization. Already in 1973 the chair of the Police Federation, Basil Stanage, cited "a simmering fear expressed throughout our ranks that we are being ... manipulated into a security force position again. I am persuaded that this should never be permitted."[57] After more than a decade of "police primacy," the federation still views police militarization and involvement in counterinsurgency operations as "distinctly unnatural."[58] In early 1986, the chair of the federation, Alan Wright, created a stir when he questioned official policy: "Fighting a guerrilla war is not a job for an ordinary police officer: it is a job of the military." Later he added, "The primacy of the police is one thing and it is something that we have done very successfully.... All we are saying is don't treat us like soldiers," and "The Government is being totally unrealistic in its policy of putting the emphasis of security on to the police."[59] Such comments reflect constables' frustrations with their security responsibilities, which have increased their potentially confrontational encounters with citizens and undermined legitimacy among affected sections of the public. These duties also put the police at great risk. With over 260 officers killed and 7,000 injured since 1969, the RUC suffers the highest casualty rate of any police force in the world.[60]
Even as the Police Federation complains about the RUC's security role, it presses for more extensive powers; both existing exceptional
[56] Desmond Hamill, Pig in the Middle: The Army in Northern Ireland, 1969–1984 (London: Methuen, 1985), chaps. 7, 8.
[57] "Address by the Chairman to the Annual Conference," Constabulary Gazette (October 1973): 7.
[58] Editorial, Police Beat, January 1981.
[59] Editorial, Police Beat, January 1986; Irish Times, 5 February 1986; Belfast Telegraph, 24 January 1986.
[60] Belfast Telegraph, 20 January 1983; Irish Times, 24 June 1985.
powers and police pressure for more extensive ones clearly militate against liberalization. But the logic in RUC circles appears to be that, until Northern Ireland becomes stable and tranquil, the police will require special measures to deal with unrest and political violence. Police forces throughout the world frequently seek broader powers; in Ulster, the use of exceptional powers deepens Catholic alienation and is readily exploitable by insurgent groups who profit by promoting a police-state image of the province.
Changes in policing since the early 1970s have been mixed—including elements of both militarization and liberalization —reflecting the contradictory mandates imposed on the police. Since 1976 the RUC has assumed the preeminent role in internal security, which has driven its steady militarization and technological development. Given the gradual narrowing of the army's role, this militarization has arisen more by default than by design. Today the RUC has specialized antiterrorist squads, operates a complex computer surveillance system, and uses highly advanced equipment. All members of the force receive paramilitary and riot training. Generally speaking, the response to riots has become more graduated and restrained, but incidents of gross overreaction and brutality continue to haunt the force.
Plastic bullets are frequently used to control public disturbances, and are described as safer than alternative techniques. From 1970 to 1989 approximately 110,000 plastic and rubber (now discontinued) bullets were fired by the police and army, resulting in eighteen deaths and hundreds of injuries to protesters and bystanders. This record of casualties may appear mild in contrast to that in other societies where plastic or rubber bullets are a staple of riot control. In little more than a year after the Arab insurrection in Israel's occupied territories began in December 1987, approximately fifty Palestinians had been killed by plastic bullets fired by Israeli soldiers.[61] The use of plastic bullets in Northern Ireland nevertheless sparks an outcry after each fatality and deepens public resentment of the police.
Covert operations and surveillance absorb a substantial proportion of police time and resources.[62] Mobile Support Units were formed in 1981–1982 for rapid-strike operations and surveillance. Both the Support Units and the RUC Special Branch have been involved in controversial incidents, including the summary shooting of suspected insurgents.
[61] Bernard Trainor, "Israeli Troops Prove Newcomers to Riot Control," New York Times, 19 February 1989.
[62] Hillyard, "Law and Order," p. 46.
The killing of six unarmed men by the Special Branch in separate incidents in 1982 was investigated by John Stalker, at the request of the Government. His findings: elite units had an "inclination" to shoot suspects without attempting to make arrests; evidence of official cover-ups of the circumstances surrounding such shootings; a lack of accountability in the Special Branch; dubious cross-border surveillance operations; mishandling of evidence in cases of police shooting; abuse of the Official Secrets Act to shroud cases of police perjury; and faulty monitoring of the RUC by the Inspectorate of Constabulary at the Home Office. Among more than forty recommendations, his unpublished interim report called for more vigorous investigation of shootings by the police, detailed guidelines for officers engaged in cross-border operations in the Irish Republic, greater control over the handling of informants, and reconsideration of the use of agents provocateurs to ensnare suspects.[63]
In February 1988 the British Attorney General stated that national security considerations disallowed criminal prosecution of the officers implicated in Stalker's inquiry as well as publication of his report. The Police Authority announced that no disciplinary proceedings would be taken against the Chief Constable and two senior officers. Twenty sergeants and constables were subjected to disciplinary hearings, in camera, for breaches of RUC regulations. After only two days of hearings in March 1989, eighteen men were reprimanded and one cautioned; one case was dismissed. (Reprimands and cautions are the least serious sanctions a disciplinary board can impose.)
This dark side of policing in Northern Ireland coexists with important progressive developments, which can be measured by examination of the RUC's ideology, impartiality, and accountability. As an integral part of the Unionist settler state, the old RUC was a patently sectarian force. This sectarian orientation has been reduced substantially, as reflected in official instructions, organizational ideology, and police practices. Senior officers champion a professional ethos within the force and fiercely resist political interference from outside groups, jealously guarding their independence from Ulster's politicians and Government officials. The emphasis from above on impartial law enforcement seems to have permeated the force. The RUC rank and file, no less than the upper
[63] John Stalker, The Stalker Affair (New York: Viking, 1988). See also "Big Changes Were Sought by Stalker," Times, 21 June 1986; "Stalker: 40 Men Face Charges," Sunday Times, 20 July 1986. After obstruction from Special Branch officers and the Chief Constable throughout his inquiry, Stalker was removed from the investigation shortly before he was to finish, apparently because it was likely to embarrass the RUC as a whole and the Chief Constable in particular.
echelon, have embraced impartial and apolitical ideals. Not surprisingly, this claim to independence has been questioned by interested parties who believe that the RUC either is biased or should be more pliable.
The new official mission of the police is itself a significant advance on the sectarian orientation of the old force. The official ideology, however, does not meet with unanimous approval throughout the force, nor does it automatically translate into practice. Some long-serving officers have strong Unionist sympathies, according to one governmental report.[64] Police work—particularly that involving internal security problems, public disturbances, and patrolling in neighborhoods most hostile to the police—is likely to involve some measure of bias and tacit instructions that disregard formal norms of minimum force and impartiality.
At the same time, it is clear that some larger patterns of policing practice have improved under direct rule. Both senior officers and the Police Federation have gone to great lengths to distance themselves from pressure groups and political parties, in their efforts to avoid the impression of communal favoritism. Moreover, RUC constables have demonstrated, particularly since the mid-1980s, a willingness to pursue both Catholic and Protestant political offenders.[65] A confidential report in 1986 by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary concluded that the RUC could be counted on to deal impartially with Protestants and Catholics.[66] And the independent Kilbrandon Inquiry found that the RUC "has become a disciplined and professional force which has been increasingly even-handed in its efforts to eradicate terrorism by paramilitary forces both Republican and Loyalist."[67] The willingness to pursue Loyalist suspects is supported by figures on Republicans and Loyalists charged with murder, attempted murder, and explosives offenses; in their respective levels of insurgent activity from 1981 to 1988—much higher for Republicans than Loyalists—a significantly higher proportion
[64] Report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, cited in Chris Ryder, "RUC Will Toe the Line on Ulster, Says Report," Sunday Times, 6 April 1986, p. 2.
[65] The RUC's first highly visible operation against Protestant offenders came in 1977 when it controlled a ten-day Loyalist strike against the Government's alleged "soft" treatment of the IRA; the police dismantled over 700 barricades and charged 124 persons with offenses.
[66] Ryder, "RUC Will Toe the Line."
[67] [Kilbrandon Inquiry] Northern Ireland: Report of an Independent Inquiry (London: British Irish Association, November 1984), p. 39, Lord Kilbrandon, Chair; see also my article, "Policing Northern Ireland Today," Political Quarterly 58, no. 1 (January-March 1987): 88–96.
of Loyalists than Republicans were charged with offenses.[68] These findings reflect in part the Protestant community's greater willingness to provide information to the police on its Loyalist offenders but also shows police determination to pursue these cases.
Increasingly impartial law enforcement—with other progressive changes in policing—has not greatly enhanced Catholics' confidence in the RUC. It is the working-class Catholic population that remains most alienated from the police because of lingering deep-rooted historical antipathy toward the force as an arm of Unionist domination; the RUC periodically engages in provocative and controversial activities; the police are tainted by their connection to other discredited agencies of the criminal justice system and the state as a whole. However impartial the enforcement of the law and treatment of suspects, they do not translate into public acceptance of the police if the law or the state lacks legitimacy. Such is the perception of a substantial section of the minority community as well as a section of the Protestant population. At the same time, many Catholics seem to have a higher opinion of the RUC than Catholic political leaders claim. In 1985, 38 percent of Catholics approved an increase in the size of the RUC; 47 percent believed the police operated in a fair or very fair manner.[69]
On the one hand, the RUC has made clear progress since the advent of British rule. Officers are better trained, more impartial and accountable, less politically driven, and more sensitive to their pivotal position in this divided society. On the other hand, further liberalization is limited by the fact that the force remains almost totally Protestant, militarized, heavily armed, and mired in the security business. Incidents of police repression are the logical result of the RUC's position on the cutting edge of the counterinsurgency effort. The tenuous combination of liberalization and militarization creates contradictory imperatives for policing in a society torn by deep communal hostilities and armed insurgency. Progress will be arrested as long as the RUC retains its militarized
[68] From 1986 through 1988, for example, the Chief Constable reported 47 murders attributed to Loyalists and 40 Loyalists charged with murder; 172 murders were attributed to Republicans and 23 Republicans charged with murder (Chief Constable, Chief Constable's Annual Report [Belfast: Police Authority, 1988], pp. 60–61).
[69] These findings are reported, along with Protestant views, in Tables 8 and 9 later in the chapter. In public opinion surveys in England and Ulster, 73 percent of English respondents found the police "approachable" compared to 51 percent of Ulster respondents, who were also much less likely to contact the police in hypothetical situations (British Broadcasting Corporation, "You and Yours: Attitudes towards the Police," September 1987).
style and is saddled with primary responsibility for internal security.[70] There appears to be no politically acceptable alternative to this state of affairs (e.g., a reversion to military primacy) under present circumstances.