PSNI can't account for thousands of use-of-force incidents
The Police Service of Northern Ireland does not know how many times its officers have used force on members of the public, after inspectors found more than 13,000 automated alerts requiring a response had gone unanswered.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) said that the figure, which had risen as high as 20,000 in the months before the inspection, represents a serious gap in the force’s ability to scrutinise whether its officers’ use of force was proportionate and justified.
The service introduced an automated system that notifies officers after they have used force on a member of the public, prompting them to either complete a use-of-force form or formally close the notification by confirming no force was used. Inspectors found that thousands of these notifications were simply left open.
HMICFRS said the accuracy of PSNI’s officially published use-of-force data “can’t be assured” while such a large number of possible incidents remain unreported, and warned that the outstanding notifications could be concealing cases that should have been referred to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland — including incidents of serious injury following police contact. “The service can’t know what risk lies in the 13,100 outstanding notifications,” inspectors wrote.
The inspection also uncovered discrepancies between what use-of-force forms recorded and what body-worn video actually showed. Auditors reviewing footage found instances where multiple officers had been visibly involved in restraining a member of the public, but only one had submitted a form. In one case, officers had used handcuffs but logged the intervention only as “limb restraints used,” with no mention of handcuffs at all.
Supervision, inspectors found, was not catching these errors. Reviews were frequently “superficial” and failed to identify obvious inconsistencies between officers’ paperwork and their body-worn video.
The failures sit alongside a broader finding that the standard of supervisory oversight of stop and search was similarly weak. In four of five reviewed cases involving the search of a child, where service policy requires a supervisor’s review, inspectors found no evidence any review had taken place.
Despite the recording failures, HMICFRS said that where it was able to assess officers’ actual conduct, including through its own review of body-worn video, use of force was “reasonable and proportionate,” and officers were “courteous while using these powers.”
Separately published data from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency shows 19,028 recorded uses of force in 2024/25, a fall of 12 per cent on the previous year. However, inspectors said this figure cannot be fully relied upon given the scale of unresolved notifications sitting outside it.
HMICFRS has told the service it must ensure officers accurately record uses of force and the justification for them, and that supervisors are properly trained to identify recording errors and use each incident as a development opportunity for the officers involved.
The findings form part of a wider inspection of the PSNI’s effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy, published today, which rated the force “adequate” in both areas assessed.