Background to the Research

• The central concern of this book was to identify the nature of the explanations members of the RUC reserve provide for their membership of the police and their behaviour within it. The social meanings attached to P/T policing in NI depend upon the officers' backgrounds and knowledge of everyday routines and social encounters. It is therefore crucial to understand the nature of the relationship between the RUC reservist and the wider community, and the manner in which the community supports the reserve. This book highlights the considerable variations that exist in the attitudes and values of the P/T members and represents the first comprehensive empirical study of the views of an important element of the RUC.

Research Approach

• A postal questionnaire was developed containing a range of questions covering both demographic information and information on political and social attitudes. The questionnaire was piloted with a small sample of officers, and as a result two further questions concerning the Police Federation were incorporated. The questionnaire was sent to all P/T members of the RUC who were in the establishment at July 1990; 891 replies were submitted representing a 57% response rate.
  
  
• Fifty six officers were interviewed in 10 police stations. Police stations approached were those deemed to represent a cross section of police activity within the province and officers interviewed were those who were on duty and available at the time of the interviewer's arrival. All interviews were taped and lasted an average of three hours at each station.

Main Findings

Police Work

• There are a number of factors that distinguish P/T policing in NI from within the rest of the UK. Within NI, P/T policing forms part of a complex nature of social and political commitment. No other internal region within the UK faces the same sort of internal threat which demands the same levels of policing commitment.
  
  
• P/T policing in NI offers significant reward, elsewhere it remains unpaid volunteer effort. The monies earned from P/T policing may form an important element of the officer's disposable income.
  
  
• Female officers still confront a number of problems within the RUC reserve; the latter possess a language code that is particularly hostile toward women. Female officers remain unarmed and are consequently limited in their operational contribution.

The Social and Work Life of Part-Time Police Reservists

• The RUC are a relatively homogenous group, many of whom have joined the police out of a sense of duty toward community, neighbourhood and friends. It is these bonding forces that form the foundations of attitudinal formation. The support of the family is therefore seen as central to the commitment given by many reservists.
  
  
• Analysis of reported friendship patterns shows that there is little apparent contact across the community divide and confirms data on the NI population as a religiously isolated set of communities. Friendships are for the most part drawn from those of the same religion.
  
  
• There is a strong and consistently high linkage between the religion of the P/T police officer and that of the officer's friends. This is particularly true of younger constables, where over 80% of those under 30 share the same religion of most or all of their friends.
  
  
• Within Belfast the friendship patterns at work are slightly different - officers may live outside the city and commute into their P/T employment. This may lead to less stability in friendship patterns.
  
  
• Neighbourhood is a consistently important determining factor in friendships and forms part of the the pattern of shared religious identity that is demonstrated by the RUC reserve. This conforms in general to the picture of NI provided by national research data which shows neighbourhood segregation as a major factor in attitudinal formation.
  
  
• The research shows that the work of the P/T RUC is not a substitute for full-time employment. Nearly all of male officers and over half of female officers are in full- time employment. Thirteen per cent of all male RUC reservists are self-employed; less than 3% of female reservists are self-employed.
  
  
• High proportions of the P/T RUC reserve possess some form of educational qualification and a higher proportion have benefited from higher education than the population at large.
  
  
• Occupational data suggests that the social class composition of the RUC reserve does not reflect the social class structure of the province. The social class composition of the P/T police shows a greater preponderance of white collar and skilled manual occupations and an under representation among semi-skilled or unskilled manual occupational groupings.

The Attitudes of Part-time Police Reservists

• The research has demonstrated that friendships within the reserve are constructed and sustained on the basis of shared political and religious identity; 70% of all reservists recognised that friendships were chosen or maintained on the basis of the sharing of agreed opinions.
  
  
• Over 70% of Protestant P/T police see themselves as British, whilst 16% see themselves as having Northern Irish or Ulster identity.
  
  
• Catholic reserves were unlikely to see themselves as British; although over half of them did, they were much more likely to see themselves as Irish or as Northern Irish/Ulster. It is clear therefore that for the RUC reserve as for the NI population, national identity interacts strongly with the religious divide.
  
  
• There is little general recognition of any sense of 'Irishness' amongst reservists. It was asked whether reservists considered that Protestants in NI have more in common with Irish rather than British people. Only 32% reservists supported this proposition.
  
  
• Protestants, who make up the majority of the RUC reserve, tend to think that there is more prejudice against Protestants in NI than against Catholics. Similarly Catholic members were more receptive to the view that there is prejudice against Catholics, than the idea of prejudice against Protestants.
  
  
• Over half of all P/T police reserve believe that there is now less prejudice against the Catholic community than there was five years ago, whilst almost half of all Protestant reservists believe that there is now more prejudice against their own community.
  
  
• The overwhelming majority of reservists, irrespective of religious identity, accept that religion will remain the major line of demarcation between communities in NI for the foreseeable future.