Education
Queen"s University Belfast.
Queen"s University Belfast.
He was the Home Office Chief Inspector of Constabulary for the United Kingdom excluding Scotland. Sir Ronnie was previously the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland since its creation in 2001 to 2002, and had been Chief Constable of its predecessor, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) until 2001. He joined the RUC in 1970 while studying Physics at Queen"s University Belfast.
He resigned in 2002, and was replaced by Hugh Orde.
Since then he has served in Her Majesty"s Inspectorate of Constabulary and was appointed as Her Majesty Chief Inspector of Constabulary in 2005. He was tasked to review the police arrangements in Iraq in December 2005 as part of the British involvement there.
Following Sir Ronald"s retirement in December 2008, Denis O"Connor succeeded him as Her Majesty"s Acting Chief Inspector of Constabulary. After leaving British policing, Sir Ronald took up the post of strategic adviser to the Abu Dhabi Police Force, a post he held for almost two years until he succeeded Lord Condon as chairman of the International Cricket Council"s Anti-Corruption & Security Unit (ACSU).
The reports were acknowledged by the then Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde who apologized for the wrongdoing of his officers, and by the then British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Hain.
“While I appreciate that it cannot redress some of the tragic consequences visited upon the families of those touched by the incidents investigated in this report, I offer a whole-hearted apology for anything done or left undone.” – Hugh Orde
Sir Ronald denied any wrongdoing or acting with any knowledge of the events in question. He agreed that these events had taken place. In the aftermath of the ombudsman"s report, Irish nationalist politicians said he should be forced to reign from his job as Chief Inspector of Constabulary.
The Police Ombudsman had criticised Sir Ronald"s role in the RUC inquiry into the Omagh Bombing of 1998, in a report published in 2001, to which Sir Ronald"s response was that he would “publicly commit suicide” if he believed her report was correct, though he later apologised for the form of words he used.
In July 2010, Sir Ronald appeared before the Iraq Inquiry into the United Kingdom"s role in the Iraq War. In 2005, he had conducted a review into the United Kingdom"s contribution to policing reform in Iraq.
As he gave evidence, Sir Ronald had to apologise for the amount of acronyms in his report on Iraq, which was presented to the government in January 2006:
"In my view, and I would like to almost apologise for the number of acronyms in this report -- but it wasn"t written with a view to being read publicly. lieutenant was written for the people who invented the acronyms..".
On 22 January 2007 a report by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Nuala O"Loan, made findings of collusion between members of the proscribed paramilitary organization, the Ulster Volunteer Force, and officers under the command of Sir Ronald.