PSNI at 25: How representative is the police service?

Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton was at a book launch in Belfast recently when he was asked: "Which Blue Lights character would you like on your team?"

For those who don't know, Blue Lights is an acclaimed BBC drama about officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

His answer was quite revealing: "Annie and Grace because we need to be more representative of the Catholic community and we need more women."

Singleton joined the PSNI at its inception in 2001 and knows the issues as well as anyone.

Twenty-five years ago, when the PSNI was created out of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), it had almost 7,200 full-time officers.

Only 600, or eight percent of them, were Catholics.

By 2011, a decade later, that figure had almost quadrupled to approximately 2,200 (30%).

That improvement was driven by a 50:50 recruitment policy which existed between 2001 and 2011, with the aim of making the PSNI more reflective of society than the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

Today that figure is nearer 2,000, or 31%, of a service consisting of approximately 6,400 officers.

(Bear in mind there have been fluctuations in the size of the PSNI throughout its 25 years.)

"We've made really good progress," said Singleton, before adding: "There's more to do."

That acknowledges two things.

Firstly, that 31% is well below the 46% of the population who identify as, or were raised as Catholic, at the last census in 2021.

Secondly, in 2024, the percentage of Catholic officers began falling back as opposed to standing still or making small advancements.

There is a sense things have stalled.

Improving the number of women in the PSNI has not required legislative intervention.

In November 2001, there were around 900 women (15%) compared to 6,200 men.

After a decade, that imbalance was nowhere near as stark: 5,200 men and 1,900 women.

Today there are around 2,100 women in its ranks (33%) and 4,300 men.

More recently, as Northern Ireland society changes, more attention is being paid to ethnicity.

Progress, if it can be classed as that, has been minimal across 25 years.

According to the latest published PSNI data, there are just 55 officers (0.86%) from an ethnic minority background.

Last year, a PSNI job advert which featured an officer from an ethnic community attracted racist posts on social media.

Speaking on the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme, DCC Singleton said that the change in the PSNI has been "seismic", adding: "I think sometimes we can all be guilty of taking it all for granted."

In terms of the possibility of reintroducing the 50:50 recruitment policy he said he didn't think anything "should be off the table".

"I think 50:50 has an almost totemic meaning to some within the Catholic/nationalist community. But to be realistic, in order for that to happen there would need to be political consensus and that's in short supply right now.

"The other thing I would say is whilst 50:50 undoubtedly helped contribute to getting us to where we are today, what it didn't address was the kind of fundamental or underlying issue.

"What didn't change over the period, even when we had 50:50, was actually the number of Catholic applicants."

He added: "Twenty-five years on obviously we're celebrating the success of course, we're reflecting on what's been achieved, again the sacrifices that have been made including the human ones.

"But we're also challenging ourselves and I guess we're putting the challenge to society to say if we're serious about this if it still matters to us then let's work together to change it."

Singleton said that "no police service operates in a vacuum, but our context is unique".

"And it's even more remarkable then against that backdrop that statistically we've made this the safest place to live, work and raise a family in these islands."