Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland facts for kids
.JPG)
The Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (often called OPONI) is a special group that helps make sure the police in Northern Ireland act fairly. It's like an independent referee for complaints about police officers. This office was set up to provide a fair and unbiased way for people to report concerns about the police. It also helps police officers if they have complaints. This important role was created by laws passed in 1998 and 2000.
Contents
How the Office Works
In Northern Ireland, the police are not allowed to investigate complaints made by the public about their own officers. Instead, these complaints must go to the Police Ombudsman’s Office. This ensures that every complaint is looked into by someone completely independent.
The Office has about 150 staff members. Around two-thirds of them work in teams that investigate complaints.
Investigating Complaints
The Office handles two main types of investigations:
- Current Cases: These are complaints about things police officers have done in the last 12 months.
- Historical Cases: The Police Ombudsman’s Office can also investigate very serious or unusual matters involving police officers, no matter when they happened. These are cases where police officers might have been involved in serious wrongdoing or major incidents. Many of these older cases are linked to the time of conflict in Northern Ireland between 1968 and 1998, often called "The Troubles".
Since it opened on 6 November 2000, the Office has handled a lot of complaints. Each year, they deal with between 2,800 and 3,600 complaints.
Who is the Police Ombudsman?
The person in charge of the Police Ombudsman's Office is called the Police Ombudsman.
The current Police Ombudsman is Marie Anderson. She started this role in July 2019. Before this, she was the Northern Ireland Ombudsman from 2016 to 2019, which is another important public role.
Marie Anderson's predecessor was Michael Maguire, who was the Chief Inspector for Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland before becoming Ombudsman. The first Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland was Nuala O'Loan. She served for seven years, ending her term in November 2007. She has since received a special honour and was appointed to the House of Lords, which is part of the UK Parliament.
List of Police Ombudsmen
- 1999 to 2007: Nuala O'Loan
- 2007 to 2011: Al Hutchinson
- 2012 to 2019: Michael Maguire
- 2019 to present: Marie Anderson
See also
