PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott plans to have 600 more officers on the streets by next summer — in what will be a major reshuffling of resources.

The police men and women across a range of ranks are expected to be freed from desk duties and the bureaucracy of paperwork.

It is all part of a “post-by-post review” currently being conducted by police commanders. But the chief constable is adamant the Full-time Reserve cannot be saved from within his budget. He admits the redeployment of his officers “is going to be a messy business for six months”, but added: “sometimes you have to grasp nettles.”

The move is not just about the dissident threat, but freeing officers to tackle other serious crime and to deliver the “24/7 personal service” he has promised.

He says it is also about “value for money.”

After a weekend in which dissident groups tried to kill a police officer and explode a bomb at Policing Board headquarters, the chief constable also has a clear position on the Army.

“We don’t need the Army back on the streets in the way it was during the Troubles,” he said.

Inside the security world, Saturday’s undercover operation in Garrison is being described as “a police-led op and a police intervention”. One source said officers had shown “incredible restraint” — describing it as “very, very professional policing”.

This covert operation is likely to have involved the PSNI, the security service MI5, a specialist Army unit and Garda — working on what one source described as “good information” which allowed for a “good intervention”.

Inside their ranks the dissidents will want to know how the planned attack was compromised.

Is it the work of an informer?

Or were they overheard or seen in covert listening and surveillance operations?

In a recent pattern of activity they have abandoned bombs in Forkhill and Armagh, followed by what they would view as the failures of last weekend. The threat they pose is still assessed as “severe” and levels of activity are at their highest in recent years.

The planned shake-up of resources inside the PSNI could mean over 5,000 officers will be available for what are termed frontline duties. One source talked about the service having “the right number of assets”, but with some of them “in the wrong places”.