PSNI 25th anniversary: Why Trimble refused to abandon ‘police family’, explains David Kerr

In the late 1990’s David Trimble was often portrayed as being opposed to policing reform, but this was never the case. He consistently accepted that policing in Northern Ireland required modernisation and greater accountability to secure confidence across both communities.

At the same time, he was adamant that any reforms that undermined the legitimacy, identity and sacrifices of the RUC were unacceptable.

As our UUP Talks team deliberated over the final version of the Belfast Agreement on the afternoon of Good Friday 1998, we were painfully aware that the total number of RUC officers killed since 1969 exceeded 300, and we knew over 9,000 had been maimed or seriously injured in terrorist attacks.

These officers had fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, partners, brothers, sisters, cousins, sons, daughters, nephews, nieces, grandchildren, colleagues and friends.

The ‘police family’ was huge. They were proud, stoic, extremely resilient and fiercely protective of the sacrifices made by all who had served.

On Good Friday 1998, David was willing to accept the creation of an Independent Commission on Policing, because he knew reform was a central part of the societal and political reset required to win community support for policing from nationalists and republicans in Northern Ireland.

Yet, whilst he recognised the importance of reform, he maintained the issue with under representation from nationalists and republicans was solely due to the strategic and lethal targeting of Catholic RUC officers by republican terrorists.

Indeed, Ken Maginnis often passionately extolled the achievements and professionalism of people from the nationalist community who had served in the RUC with distinction, always lamenting that so many more would have joined had it not been for the Provisional IRA.

When the Patten Commission Report was published in September 1999, David’s worst fears over symbolic changes to the RUC were realised. While the report recommended extensive changes to operational policing, it also proposed replacing the RUC title with a new name, introducing new symbols and insignia, and altering arrangements concerning the Union flag.

What none of us in the UUP knew at the time, was that 80-90% of the Patten Report had been written by the senior leadership of the RUC itself. We would learn many years later that the only significant recommendations not from the RUC leadership themselves, related to the symbolic changes to the name and badge.

As David Trimble criticised the Patten Report as “the most shoddy piece of work” he had seen in his life, its main authors within the leadership of the RUC remained virtually silent.

Clearly wary of the reaction from their own rank and file, they wanted Chris Patten to own the entirety of the recommendations and in doing so, by causative political default, they ensured David Trimble received all the political blame from anti-Agreement unionists.

There is no doubt in my mind that had the RUC leadership done more to promote and publicly own the Patten reforms, a lot more hurt to the police family could have been avoided, force morale preserved, and a lot less political damage caused to pro-agreement unionists, who were trying to build a new peaceful future for Northern Ireland.

However, despite all the challenges, always the pragmatist, David Trimble’s opposition to the report was not absolute - it was selective. He continued to support recommendations relating to improved training, accountability and community policing. His objections centred primarily on institutional identity rather than the principle of reform itself.

While he welcomed the award of the George Cross to the RUC on 12th April 2000 as entirely appropriate, he knew it wouldn’t assuage the anxiety within the police family who were focused on preserving the integrity of their service and sacrifice.

Throughout 2000, debates surrounding the Police (Northern Ireland) Bill provided David Trimble with an opportunity to influence the implementation of the reforms.

His UUP Westminster team sought amendments that would preserve greater continuity between the RUC and any future police service. They argued that the legislation should recognise the sacrifices of RUC officers, protect operational independence and retain elements of the force’s traditions.

One striking feature of this period in the House of Commons, was that the UUP tabled 200 amendments to the policing legislation and the DUP tabled none.

Such was the nature of the battle being waged by the DUP for supremacy within unionism post 1998, they had clearly calculated the worse the policing reforms were from an RUC police family perspective, the better it would be for them politically.

The DUP were consistently ruthless in the execution of this strategy on other issues, including IRA decommissioning, never helping David Trimble

deal with any issue of concern to Unionism in the immediate years post Good Friday 1998.

When the Police Service of Northern Ireland came into being in November 2001, while David Trimble was disappointed by the UK government’s determination to push through the name and symbolic changes, he was proud that he and his UUP colleagues had ensured the policing legislation stated the RUC was fully incorporated into the PSNI. There was a new

beginning, but there was no disbandment.

I worked with a group of UUP MLAs to also ensure the new PSNI badge would be a product of sensible cross party, post GFA consensus agreement.

Despite some proposals to remove the crown, harp and shamrock used on the old RUC badge, the UUP team argued the new badge should become an evolution of the RUC badge.

After tabling concept designs and extensive discussions by the Policing Board, it was agreed that the three symbols from the RUC badge would be retained and three more added – the scales of justice (representing equality and justice), a torch (representing enlightenment and a new beginning) and an olive branch (representing peace). At the centre of the six symbols was St Patrick’s Saltire.

The new badge was a re-imagined and better version of the old badge - symmetrical, balanced and uniquely Northern Irish.

As First Minister, David encouraged all members of society to support the PSNI. He continued to advocate that former RUC officers deserved public recognition for their contribution during the conflict, maintaining that reform should not erase the force’s historical legacy.

Between 2002 and 2005, he moved from criticising Patten to attacking Sinn Féin’s refusal to endorse the PSNI. He argued that republicans could not expect to be in government and continue to boycott policing institutions and refuse to encourage cooperation with the police.

This undermined one of the central principles of the Good Friday Agreement, namely that all participants should support democratic institutions and the rule of law.

Policing reform could not be considered complete until republicans accepted the authority of the new police service.

The subsequent St Andrew’s Agreement in 2006 reinforced the importance of policing within the peace process.

When Sinn Féin voted to support the PSNI and participate fully in the policing structures established under the Good Friday Agreement (in January 2007), I have no doubt that David would have, ironically, felt a quiet sense of achievement. Sinn Féin’s endorsement of policing - albeit belatedly - showed that the Good Friday Agreement was working.

When devolution at Stormont was restored in May 2007, even though the institutions were being led by his bitter political rivals, David would have also been entitled to feel a sense of vindication.

Ian Paisley was sitting smiling and laughing with the former IRA commander Martin McGuinness, as the joint heads of the new Northern Ireland government, about to embark on a new era of power-sharing.

The man who said he would never share power with Sinn Fein and the man who said there would be no return to Stormont, were about to do exactly the opposite of what they had told their supporters, and follow the path laid out by David Trimble and John Hume - to govern Northern Ireland together, in peace.

We have come a long way since 1998. Back then, just over 8% of RUC officers were (perceived) Catholic. By 2007 the number had risen to 21.4% and by 1st April 2026 the number was 31.2%.

At some point in the future, we will hopefully lose interest in these statistics, but for now those of us still alive, who were part of creating transformational and societal change in Northern Ireland in 1998, can take quiet pride in our collective achievements. I’m certain David Trimble would.

The reset for policing in Northern Ireland is one of the greatest success stories of Good Friday 1998, and we should all be proud of it.

​• David Kerr was a Special Adviser to former UUP leader and NI First Minister, Lord David Trimble, between 1996-2002