A
Brief History of the Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster
Constabulary was established on 1 June 1922 as
the police force for Northern Ireland. It was
founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish
Constabulary (RIC), the Belfast Borough Police
Force and the Londonderry Borough Police Force.
From 1922 to 1970 control of the RUC was vested
in the Minister of Home Affairs, (a Unionist
politician), a situation which was to create
serious difficulties in the perceived
impartiality of the RUC in later years.
Due to the continued
problem of political agitation and violence, the
RUC had the dual role of combating normal crime
and armed subversion from the IRA. It was
assisted in the latter role by the Ulster Special
Constabulary, which acted as a part-time
auxiliary police. The Civil Rights Movement of
1968/69 led to serious civil unrest with which
the RUC was unprepared to deal due to its small
size, limited resources and political control and
the army was called in to restore order.
The escalation of the
terrorist campaign in the 1970’s and
80’s saw the RUC develop in both size (to a
maximum strength of 13,500) and expertise to meet
the challenge. A policy of ‘police
primacy’ was adopted from the
mid-1970’s, under which the responsibility
for security lay in the first instance with the
police, with army support available only when
necessary. In addition to countering the
terrorist threat the RUC developed specialist
units concerned with areas such as serious crime,
racketeering, drugs, traffic offences and
domestic abuse.
The difficulty and danger
of the RUC’s task in the face of years of
terrorist violence was recognised by the award of
the George Cross to the force in April 2000.
A large number of officers also received
individual awards for gallantry. From 1969, 303
police officers were killed and almost 9,000
injured in paramilitary assassinations or
attacks, mostly by the Provisional IRA, which
made the RUC the most dangerous police force in
the world of which to be a member.
On
4 November 2001 the RUC became the Police Service
of Northern Ireland
Ford Anglia Saloons
as used by the Royal Ulster Constabulary
Royal Ulster Constabulary
used all black Standard Ford Anglia's
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