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The present article analyses the role of the District Policing Partnership Boards conceptualized by the Patten Report as a pivotal aspect of policing reform in Northern Ireland. It argues that, as originally envisaged, these Boards possessed a participatory capacity to transform rigid institutionalized relations of power between state and society. In outlining their potential the article aims to highlight the difference between traditional consultation mechanisms and more communicative-based participatory policing. The article analyses the reasons why this more radical model was rejected and examines the impact of this on the operation of District Policing Partnerships. It concludes that the consultative mechanisms that emerged have so far contributed little to the structural transformation of police-society relations in Northern Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines proposals for the reform of the relationship between internal security and state-society relations in Northern Ireland and finds a divergence from the usual liberal package of police reforms. These proposals embraced the political nature of security provision and aimed to create authentically democratic institutions endowed with sufficient power to contest the state's control over the monopoly of force. Through a Habermassian lens, the research analyses the emancipatory potential of these proposals, and examines the reasons why they were rejected in favour of a state-centric, liberal model that did not deliver the structural transformation of police-society relations sought by the people of Northern Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]