The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has moved to allow officers to include their pronouns on their badges as part of “efforts to become more representative and inclusive”.

The move was initially discussed at an event in Belfast organised by PSNI’s Strategic Community Engagement Team in November 2023. On this occasion, members of the LGBTQ+ community were invited to share their views on policing.

According to a description of the meeting, attendees agreed that including pronouns on badges “should be an individual choice for officers but that this would assist in showing the PSNI was a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community”.

Commenting on the move, a spokesperson for the Northern Ireland police said: “The decision to provide the option to include gender pronouns on name badges was taken in September 2024 to assist the Police Service of Northern Ireland in efforts to become more representative and inclusive, and enable officers and staff to feel supported.

“Pronouns can be a small but important way to acknowledge and respect someone’s identity. The decision as to whether any officer includes pronouns on their name badge will be for that individual to consider.”

The spokesperson added: “Officers and staff who do not wish to have pronouns on their name badge will not be in any way required to have them added and this will be a completely voluntary option.”

This change follows a decision taken last year to ban police officers from marching in uniform at Pride in Belfast, which angered some LGBTQ+ members of the force.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show on Wednesday, December 4, DUP MLA and Policing Board member Trevor Clarke criticised the move to introduce pronouns on badges, describing it as “woke nonsense”.

Clarke added: “Where does it end? What other minority groups do they want to include on their badges as well?”

In response to such statement, Vincent Creelan, former PSNI officer and founder of the first Gay Police Association in the north, said: “This isn’t going to prevent an officer from doing their job…it’s just us recognising in a small, subtle way, but a very clear way, that the organisation and some individual officers are respected in the service and also they respect the community they are policing.”