Northern Ireland Policing Board

The Northern Ireland Policing Board (Irish: Bord Póilíneachta Thuaisceart Éireann,Ulster-Scots: Norlin Airlan Polisin Boord) is the police authority for Northern Ireland, charged with supervising the activities of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). It is a non-departmental public body composed of members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, and independent citizens (including some members of political parties), who are appointed by the Minister of Justice using the Nolan principles for public appointments.

The board is not the first police oversight body in the history of Northern Ireland. It was established on 4 November 2001 pursuant to the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000, as the direct successor of the Police Authority for Northern Ireland, which oversaw the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Appointments were made by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland prior to the devolution of policing and justice.

When the Assembly was suspended in October 2002, the first board's members were re-appointed as independents by the Secretary of State to enable it to continue its work (despite most being political representatives). The Policing Board was reconstituted on 1 April 2006, 22 May 2007 and again on 24 May 2011.

The third reconstitution of the board in 2007 was historic as Sinn Féin took up its seats on the Policing Board following the party's decision to support 'civic policing' by the PSNI at its ardfheis on 28 January 2007. Sinn Féin was associated in the past with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), which killed 271 Royal Ulster Constabulary officers and 12 police officers outside Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and had refused to recognise the legal authority of the RUC or PSNI until that point.

...
Wikipedia