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Our last recruitment campaign in 2015 identified there had been a lower than expected number of applications from the Catholic community and again a lower than expected number of Catholic applicants being successful in the actual recruitment process.

We commissioned Deloitte, our independent recruitment company, to undertake a piece of research to identify and understand barriers affecting recruitment. Whilst the research focussed on barriers to members of the Catholic community joining the Police Service it also looked at a range of other factors including gender, age, socio-economic background and nationality.

As a result of the findings, we are now making a number of changes to the recruitment process; these include redesigning the ‘Join PSNI’ website, reducing the timescales for anyone applying and introducing an online initial selection test.

This research has been shared with the NI Policing Board and Police Federation ensuring we can collectively make every effort to attract a diverse range of applicants from all sectors of our community.

Downloads

Download a summary of Deloitte's report findings below.

Careers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland

The Police Service of Northern Ireland is committed to being representative of the community we serve and welcomes all applicants interested in a career in policing.

Interested in a career in policing? Visit the Join PSNI website.

I have been able to speak to so many people and get an insight into different communities. The fact that every day is so different and I don’t know what I will experience is something I relish. I can never pre-empt a working day and I feel that helps me build experience and develop as a police officer.

Constable Devlin , Police Service of Northern Ireland