Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland investigation and complaints reports with tracked recommendations, plus annual complaint-statistics totals.
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The Police Ombudsman has recommended that Armed Response Officers should be provided with head-mounted cameras to ensure improved footage of weapons discharges.
1: The Police Ombudsman has recommended that Armed Response Officers should be provided with head-mounted cameras to ensure improved footage of weapons discharges.
The family of Bertie Frazer who was murdered in 1975 have received a Police Ombudsman report which concludes that the RUC investigation into his death failed them and which calls the level of available archive material “a stark example of limited police...
The Police Ombudsman has been ‘unable to conclude definitively’ on allegations that functioning firearms were returned to paramilitary arms hides during covert policing operations and were subsequently used during the murders of police officers and a civilian.
A Police Ombudsman investigation has found that PSNI cybercrime teams did not have the capacity or capability to effectively manage the risk posed by online child sex abuser Alexander McCartney.
Police Ombudsman Investigation Finds that Officers Used Degrading Language and Mishandled Evidence After Mobile Phone Records 16 Hours of Audio
1: The Police Ombudsman recommended that the PSNI should hold misconduct meetings with all four officers.
A PSNI officer has been given a final written warning after a USB memory stick containing the entire contents of a missing person’s laptop was found during a search of his house by Police Ombudsman investigators.
The Police Ombudsman has found no evidence of misconduct by police officers who were involved in a traffic collision while stopping a car being driven in the dark with its headlights off near Lisburn in April.
The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland has found that police officers adhered to training, acted proportionally and prioritised public health and animal welfare following a review into two incidents that led to cattle being euthanised on two major roadways...
The Police Ombudsman has recommended that a new policy is put in place between the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) to deal with people who are intoxicated and refuse medical treatment after a...
1: The Police Ombudsman has recommended that a new policy is put in place between the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) to...
2: The Ombudsman also recommended that a new policy be put in place between the PSNI and NIAS for dealing with people who are intoxicated and refuse medical treatment.
A police officer has been dismissed for sending “highly inappropriate and offensive” messages after a person who received them complained to the Police Ombudsman.
A Police Ombudsman review of the PSNI’s use of ‘Attenuating Energy Projectiles’ (AEPs), commonly known as baton rounds, during public disorder in June has concluded that police commanders showed “considerable restraint” in their use of force.
The Police Ombudsman has concluded that the RUC investigation into the 1989 murder of John Devine was ‘seriously defective’.
The Police Ombudsman has confirmed that there are no grounds to consider opening an investigation into a recent discharge of firearms by police officers.
The Police Ombudsman has found that the police investigation of the murder of Peter Gallagher in 1993 was “wholly inadequate” and failed his family.
The Police Ombudsman has concluded that failings in the RUC investigation into the Kingsmill atrocity, including the failure to arrest suspects linked by intelligence to the attack, took place against a backdrop of ‘wholly insufficient’ resources.
The Police Ombudsman has found that complaints from the family of John O’Hara about the RUC investigation of his murder in 1991 were “legitimate and justified”.
The failure to link a rifle recovered by police in 1988 to the murders of Seamus Morris and Peter Dolan that same year ‘deprived RUC investigators of developing lines of enquiry and interviewing suspects’, the Police Ombudsman has concluded.
The Police Ombudsman has concluded that there was ‘no credible evidence’ to support previously unknown information that Michael Tighe was trying to surrender when he was fatally shot by an RUC officer in 1982.
The Police Ombudsman has concluded that the original RUC investigation into the fatal shooting of Colum Marks ‘lacked independence and rigour’ and ‘was wholly inadequate’ given the seriousness of the incident.
The Police Ombudsman has concluded that it could not be established that two RUC Special Branch officers were present when a person admitted responsibility for the 1990 murder of Eoin Morley, and took no action.
A case where a police officer was dismissed more than four years after the Police Ombudsman completed an investigation into his conduct, has led to a renewed call for fast-tracking powers for the Ombudsman’s Office.
The Police Ombudsman has reported on her investigation into complaints made by a man who was arrested on 5 February 2021 at an event to commemorate the anniversary of the 1992 Sean Graham Bookmakers shootings.
A Police Ombudsman investigation has found that although police planned appropriately for an INLA commemoration in Derry/Londonderry, by the time it became apparent that firearms were likely to be used it was too late to mount an operation to intervene.
The Police Ombudsman investigation into the La Mon House bombing has concluded that a ‘well-resourced’ RUC investigation which showed ‘earnest endeavour’ was compromised after the confessions of a man who alleged he had been assaulted by police during his...
The Police Ombudsman has concluded that the initial police investigation into the death of Katie Simpson was ‘flawed’ and ‘failed the Simpson family’.
1: The Police Ombudsman recommended that: the service instruction in relation to death investigations be reviewed and updated to include incidents resulting in life threatening...
A former police constable, David Dumican, has been sentenced for causing grievous bodily harm to Arron Beeton during an incident in Lurgan in June 2018.
The Police Ombudsman Chief Executive has said any case where police officers ‘abuse their position for sexual gain is serious corruption and unacceptable’ after a former PSNI officer, Christopher Little, was sentenced for misconduct in public office.
A Police Ombudsman investigation has found that the PSNI missed opportunities to identify the subject of a dissident republican threat, six months before he was murdered in December 2018.
A police officer has been dismissed after a Police Ombudsman investigation found that he had sex with a vulnerable woman at an industrial estate in Antrim while on duty in 2016. Police Ombudsman Mrs Marie Anderson said the officer’s dismissal by the PSNI...
A PSNI Civilian Detention Officer has been dismissed from the police after receiving a suspended prison sentence for assaulting a detainee in the custody suite at Musgrave Police Station in Belfast.
The Police Ombudsman has found that the PSNI failed to deal properly with intelligence that a Carrickfergus man was to be shot dead, resulting in a failure to warn him about the threat before he was murdered.
1: The Police Ombudsman recommended that one Duty Inspector should be disciplined for this failing, and said she would have made a similar recommendation about a second Duty...
A Police Ombudsman investigation has identified ‘multiple failings’ in how police managed the risks faced by a 36-year-old Belfast man who died after being restrained by officers while under the influence of cocaine.
1: She recommended that all three should face misconduct hearings which would have allowed “the evidence to be tested and the full range of disciplinary sanctions to be considered.
The Police Ombudsman has recommended that Armed Response Officers should be provided with head-mounted cameras to ensure improved footage of weapons discharges. It follows an investigation which found that footage recorded by the shoulder-mounted camera of an...
1: The Police Ombudsman has recommended that Armed Response Officers should be provided with head-mounted cameras to ensure improved footage of weapons discharges.
The Police Ombudsman, Mrs Marie Anderson, has commended three probationary police officers for raising concern about the “highly inappropriate” way a colleague had spoken to a vulnerable man. The officers had been responding to a report of concern for the...
An investigation by the Police Ombudsman’s Office has found no evidence to support a complaint that police officers stole £2,000 while searching a car near Newry last August.
A PSNI officer has been dismissed for “gross misconduct” after a bicycle worth about £500 was found at his house after being lost by its vulnerable owner. Police Ombudsman Mrs Marie Anderson said the officer “had taken advantage of the man’s vulnerabilities...
Police custody staff have been commended for ensuring the wellbeing of a man who became critically ill after taking drugs he had smuggled into a police cell. The Police Ombudsman, Mrs Marie Anderson, said the man received the emergency medical treatment he...
The Police Ombudsman has concluded that the family of Patrick Kelly, abducted and murdered in 1974, was ‘failed by police’ as the result of a ‘wholly inadequate investigation’
The Police Ombudsman has concluded that the PSNI investigation into a ‘Protect Our Monuments’ protest in Belfast on 13 June 2020 was ‘closed prematurely’ following a failure to access and exploit intelligence which may have led to the identification of the...
A Police Ombudsman investigation has concluded that four young men arrested in Derry/Londonderry in 1979 were treated unfairly and made ‘confessional’ statements which were not voluntary according to the standards of the time.
The Police Ombudsman, Mrs Marie Anderson, has commended three probationary police officers for raising concern about the “highly inappropriate” way a colleague had spoken to a vulnerable man.
The Police Ombudsman has today (Tuesday 8 February 2022) issued a public statement which identifies significant investigative and intelligence failures and “collusive behaviours” by the RUC in relation to a series of murders and attempted murders by the...
The Police Ombudsman has today published a report into the RUC's handling of paramilitary attacks by the UDA/UFF between 1989 and 1993 which resulted in 19 murders and multiple attempted murders. The Ombudsman has identified collusive behaviours and raised...
A police officer has been disciplined for failing to take appropriate action after discovering suspected drugs while responding to a call to assist a suicidal woman in Belfast in January 2019. The officer found what appeared to be cannabis while searching in...
1: Mrs Anderson recommended that police should take disciplinary action against the officer, and this was accepted and acted upon by the PSNI.
An investigation by the Police Ombudsman’s Office has cleared the driver of a police Land Rover of claims that he performed a “kamikaze” driving manoeuvre in Dundonald last year. A motorist contacted police to report that the Land Rover, which had been...
A police officer abused his professional position by producing his police warrant card while confronting a driver about a traffic collision, an investigation by the Police Ombudsman’s Office has found. The driver complained that the officer had tried to...
1: She recommended that the officer be disciplined.
The Police Ombudsman has found no evidence that police were in possession of information which, if acted upon, could have prevented an IRA mortar attack in Newry 1992 in which a police officer was killed and another received life-changing injuries.
The Police Ombudsman, Mrs Marie Anderson, has identified significant investigative failures by the RUC in relation to the murder of 17-year-old Damien Walsh in 1993, as well as evidence of ‘collusive behaviours’ by police.
The Police Ombudsman, Marie Anderson, has identified significant operational and investigative failures by the RUC in relation to the deaths of four people during severe disorder in Belfast on the night of 14/15 August 1969.
The Police Ombudsman, Marie Anderson, has said that claims the police handling of ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests and a counter demonstration earlier this year amounted to unfairness and discrimination are justified.
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 2 |
| 2018 | 4 |
| 2019 | 4 |
| 2020 | 11 |
| 2021 | 6 |
| 2022 | 4 |
| 2023 | 8 |
| 2024 | 9 |
| 2025 | 20 |
| 2026 | 1 |
The chart shows the number of loaded PONI reports by publication year.
| Period | Complaints received | Allegations | Upheld | Not upheld | Upheld rate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 3,085 | 5,214 | 148 | 1,061 | 12.2% | Original source ↗ |
| 2023-24 | 3,368 | 6,002 | 143 | 1,294 | 10.0% | Original source ↗ |
| 2022-23 | 3,197 | 5,249 | 203 | 1,336 | 13.2% | Original source ↗ |
| 2021-22 | 2,959 | 5,210 | 143 | 1,129 | 11.2% | Original source ↗ |
| 2020-21 | 2,521 | 3,769 | 106 | 806 | 11.6% | Original source ↗ |