Editing Royal Ulster Constabulary (section)

==Criticism==

===Ill-treatment of children===
[[File:OgraShinnFeinstickerRUC.JPG|thumb|right|180px|An [[Ógra Shinn Féin]] propaganda sticker calling for the RUC to be disbanded]]
On 1 July 1992, [[Human Rights Watch]] (HRW) issued a detailed report, alleging RUC and paramilitary violations against children's rights during [[the Troubles]]. Both Catholic and Protestant children alleged regular and severe physical assault and mental harassment at the hands of RUC officers, usually conducted to force a [[false confession]] of a crime.<ref name="Cearta2">[https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/uk927.pdf Children in Northern Ireland: Abused by Security Forces and Paramilitaries, Human Rights Watch Helsinki] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305222950/https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/uk927.pdf |date=5 March 2016 }}, hrw.org; accessed 21 February 2014.</ref> In an accompanying statement, HRW cited allegations that:<blockquote>Police officers and soldiers harass young people on the street hitting, kicking and insulting them. Police officers in interrogation centres insult, trick and threaten youngsters and sometimes physically assault them. Children are locked up in adult detention centres and prisons in shameful conditions. Helsinki Watch heard dozens of stories from children, their parents, lawyers, youth workers and political leaders of children being stopped on the street and hit, kicked and abused again and again by police and soldiers. And seventeen-year-olds told Human Rights Watch Helsinki of severe beatings in detention during interrogations by police.<ref name="Cearta1">[https://www.hrw.org/en/reports/1992/07/01/children-northern-ireland Children in Northern Ireland] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140228025526/http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/1992/07/01/children-northern-ireland |date=28 February 2014 }}, [[Human Rights Watch]]; 1 July 1992; accessed 21 February 2014.</ref></blockquote>

===Patten report===
{{Main|Patten Report}}
The [[Good Friday Agreement]] (GFA) of 1998 produced a wholesale reorganisation of inter-community, governmental and policing systems, including a power-sharing executive. The bias, and the under-representation of Catholics and nationalists in the RUC led to, as part of the Good Friday Agreement, a fundamental policing review, headed by [[Chris Patten]], a former British [[Governor of Hong Kong]] and [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] Minister under [[Margaret Thatcher]]. The review was published in September 1999. It recommended a wholesale reorganisation of policing, with the Royal Ulster Constabulary being replaced by the [[Police Service of Northern Ireland]] (PSNI), and a drive to recruit Catholics and the adoption of a new crest and cap badge. The PSNI was introduced in November 2001. As part of the change, the police service dropped the word "Royal" from and adopted a new badge that included the crown, harp, and shamrock, an attempt at representation of the major ideologies. {{citation needed|date=February 2014}}

===Loyalist collusion===

====Special Patrol Group====
{{See also|Special Patrol Group (RUC)}}
The [[Special Patrol Group (RUC)|Special Patrol Group]] was formed in the late 1960s as the Police Reserve Force. The name was changed to avoid confusion with the newly formed part-time Police Reserve in 1970,<ref name="doherty"/> and was renamed "[[Divisional Mobile Support Unit]]" in 1980 after two of its members were convicted of kidnap and murder.<ref name="doherty"/> The two, [[John Weir (loyalist)|John Weir]] and [[Billy McCaughey]], implicated some of their colleagues in a range of crimes including giving weapons, information and transport to loyalist paramilitaries as well as carrying out shooting and bombing attacks of their own.<ref>[http://www.nd.edu/~cchr/publications/IIP_final_11_06_06.pdf Center for Civil & Human Rights] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070615232223/http://www.nd.edu/~cchr/publications/IIP_final_11_06_06.pdf |date=15 June 2007 }}, www.nd.edu; accessed 20 February 2014.</ref> Weir alleged that senior officers, including Chief Superintendent [[1989 Jonesborough ambush#Chief Superintendent Harry Breen|Harry Breen]], were aware of and approved of their activity.
====The Stevens Inquiries====
{{Main|Stevens Inquiries}}
On 18 April 2003 as part of the [[Stevens Report|third report]] into collusion between [[Ulster loyalist]] paramilitaries, RUC, and British Army, Sir [[John Stevens (Chief Constable)|John Stevens]] published an Overview and Recommendations document (Stevens 3).<ref>Overview and Recommendations document for Stevens 3 is available in PDF format [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2956337.stm here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206010331/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2956337.stm |date=6 December 2006 }}.</ref> Stevens' intention was to make recommendations which arose from serious shortcomings he had identified in all three Inquiries.<ref>For a chronology of the Stevens Inquiries and surrounding events see BBC News, 17 April 2003 available [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2954383.stm '''here'''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040625205114/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2954383.stm |date=25 June 2004 }}</ref> In his autobiography, Stevens was at pains to point out the high regard in which he held many RUC officers, including Detective Superintendent Maurice Neilly, who was killed in the [[1994 Chinook air crash]].<ref>[[Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington|John Stevens]], ''Not for the Faint-Hearted'' (p. 165), Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2005; {{ISBN|978-0-297-84842-4}}</ref>

The third Stevens Inquiry began in 1999, and referred to his previous reports when making his recommendations. Stevens' third inquiry focused in detail on only two of the killings in which collusion was alleged; that of [[Brian Adam Lambert]] in 1987 and of [[Pat Finucane (solicitor)|Pat Finucane]] in 1989. Stevens used the following criteria as a definition of collusion while conducting his investigation:
*The failure to keep records or the existence of contradictory accounts which could limit the opportunity to rebut serious allegations.
*The absence of accountability which could allow acts or omissions by individuals to go undetected.
*The withholding of information which could impede the prevention of crime and the arrest of suspects.
*The unlawful involvement of agents in murder which could imply that the security forces sanction killings.<ref>Conclusions section of Stevens 3 Overview and Recommendations document, p. 16</ref>
On 12 December 2012 the British Prime minister [[David Cameron]] admitted a statement to the House of Commons that "shocking levels of collusion occurred in the murder of Finucane."<ref>{{cite news |last= Guardian |first= |date=12 December 2012 |title=David Cameron admits 'shocking levels of collusion' in Pat Finucane murder |url= https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/dec/12/david-cameron-pat-finucane-murder|work= |location= |access-date= 28 November 2021}}</ref>

====Police Ombudsman====
{{See also|Nuala O'Loan#Operation Ballast investigation into collusion}}
In a report released on 22 January 2007, the Police Ombudsman [[Nuala O'Loan|Dame Nuala O'Loan]] stated [[Ulster Volunteer Force]] (UVF) informers committed serious crimes, including murder, with the full knowledge of their handlers.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/22_01_07_ballast.pdf Statement by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland] on her investigations into the circumstances surrounding the death of [[Raymond McCord|Raymond McCord, Jr.]] and related matters {{Cite web| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/22_01_07_ballast.pdf | title=Statement by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland on her investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Raymond McCord Junior and related matters | access-date=23 September 2021 | archive-date=23 September 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923122010/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/22_01_07_ballast.pdf | url-status=bot: unknown}}, bbc.co.uk, 22 January 2007; accessed 22 December 2014.</ref> The report stated that [[RUC Special Branch]] officers created false statements, blocked evidence searches and "baby-sat" suspects during interviews.