The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in 2001, is the direct descendants of that force, while a new police force — the Garda Síochána — was set up in the Irish Free State (Republic of Ireland since 1949). Today, due to the sharing of a land border and legislation introduced to both countries after the Belfast Agreement of 1998, there is cooperation between the main police forces of jurisdictions.
The Republic of Ireland has a single national civilian police force, Garda Síochána na hÉireann (Guardians of the Peace of Ireland). This force is responsible for all aspects of territorial civil policing. The Garda Síochána have been the only territorial police force in the Republic since the disbandment of the Civic Guard gendarmery in 1922, and the incorporation of the Dublin Metropolitan Police in 1925 (unlike the UK, excluding Northern Ireland and Scotland, where each county and certain cities have distinctly separate forces, such as Essex Police, Nottinghamshire Police or London's Metropolitan Police).
In addition to the Gardaí, other policing bodies include the
Law enforcement in Northern Ireland follows a similar model to that of the rest of the United Kingdom in that it is the responsibility of the local territorial police force. However unlike England and Wales, which have police forces divided by local areas such as ceremonial counties or local council areas, Northern Ireland (like Scotland) has a single territorial police force, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), formerly known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). This force, one of the largest geographically in the UK, is responsible for all local policing in the province.
In addition to the PSNI, there are other agencies which have responsibility for specific parts of Northern Ireland's transport infrastructure:
Officers of these forces have full constabulary powers within one mile of the specific locations they police, which come from specific pieces of legislation relating to them.
