A memo to the prime minister of Northern Ireland summarising the activities of the Catholic Recruitment Committee. The partition of Ireland led to the disbandment of the RIC and the establishment of two separate police services. In January 1922, the Northern Ireland Minister of Home Affairs Sir Richard Dawson Bates appointed a committee of inquiry for police reorganisation in Northern Ireland. The committee recommended that the new force be 3,000 strong and consist of former Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and Ulster Special Constabulary (USC). The report stipulated that one third of the men should be Catholic, recruited from the RIC and then from the wider Catholic community. Although some members of the committee criticised the proportion of Catholics, their findings were used as a basis of the formation of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

In March 1922, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Sir James Craig and Provisional Prime Minister of Southern Ireland Michael Collins met to agree terms for an end to violence in the North. The Craig-Collins agreement focussed on the reform of the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) in Belfast. Collins wanted detachments of specials in mixed areas to consist equally of Catholic and Protestant policemen and asked for an advisory committee to oversee an increase in Catholic recruitment to the Belfast based USC. The Catholic Recruitment Committee met three times in May and June. Poor attendance, the arrest of Catholic members and a lack of commitment from the Northern Ireland government prevented the committee from increasing the number of Catholic recruits.

The one third Catholic quota for the regular RUC was abandoned and officials in the Belfast government pushed for greater recruitment from the USC. By 1925, the RUC was 2,990 strong and consisted of 2,449 Protestants and 541 Catholics. The RUC was supported by a Protestant USC reserve of 24,000. As former RIC members retired the number of Catholics in the RUC declined. In 1933, the percentage of Catholic members in the RUC had decreased to 17%, by 1966 10% and in 1993 the figure had dropped to 7%.