What is Police Service of Northern Ireland?
The '''Police Service of Northern Ireland''' ('''PSNI''') ({{lang-ga|Seirbhís Póilíneachta Thuaisceart Éireann}}) is the [[police]] service that covers [[Northern Ireland]]. It was started on 4 November 2001. The old police service for Northern Ireland was the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]]. The service is based in [[Cherryvalley]], east [[Belfast]]. The current [[Chief Constable]] is [[Simon Byrne]]. The old Chief Constables were Sir [[Hugh Orde]] OBE,Sir [[Ronnie Flanagan]] OBE and [[Colin Cramphorn]]. == Support for the police == All the big political parties in Northern Ireland support the PSNI. Earlier, the political party [[Sinn Féin]], who have many supporters, did not support the police. But after the [[St Andrews Agreement]] they decided to support them after a special [[Ard Fheis]] about the police on 28 January 2007.<ref>{{cite news | title = SF delegates vote to support policing| work = RTÉ News| publisher = [[Radio Telefís Éireann]]| date = 2007-01-28|url =http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0128/northpolitics.html | accessdate = 2008-04-06}}</ref> In [[September 2005]] the PSNI started the [[Historical Enquiries Team]] to help solve 3,269 murders that happened during [[the Troubles]]. The [[Northern Ireland Policing Board]] make sure that the PSNI are fair and do a good job. The [[Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland]] investigates complaints about the police. The current Police [[Ombudsman]] is [[Al Hutchinson]]. The last Ombudsman was [[Nuala O'Loan]]. She was the Ombudsman until November 2007. == Number of Roman Catholics in the PSNI == The PSNI gives 50% of its jobs to [[Roman Catholicism|Roman Catholics]] and 50% of its jobs to people who are not Roman Catholic. This is because many people think there are not enough Roman Catholics in the PSNI. By 2006, 20% of PSNI policemen were Roman Catholic. Only 8.3% of policemen in the old [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] were Roman Catholic.<ref> {{cite news| title = Catholics now comprise fifth of PSNI officers|publisher = [[Eircom]]}}</ref> About 30% of the fo