Row after Orde claims board puts tribalism before policing

Local & National

Friday, April 11, 2008

Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde was under fire last night after he accused the Policing Board of going "a bit tribal".

The Board is to seek urgent clarification about Sir Hugh's remarks made at a business breakfast with PR professionals in Dublin yesterday.

He is reported to have said that elected members on the board were more interested in political debate than policing issues.

The police chief hit out at members of the board who he claimed were being distracted by sectarian arguments which he believes have nothing to do with policing.

He said: "I get more strategic questions, I have to say, from my junior officers than I do currently from the Police Board. Because the Police Board's gone a bit tribal at the moment."

He said that despite the Board being there to hold him to account he is often not consulted on serious policing issues.

"Look at the questions that are asked at Policing Board.

"Bearing in mind the purpose of the Policing Board is to hold me to account and to build confidence in policing... if you get a question from one party, you get a counter question from the other party, in a way not so much about policing but it's about a different political debate."

A police spokeswoman said the remarks had been taken out of context. She stressed that Sir Hugh had praised the board for playing a central role in moving policing forward in Northern Ireland and said it had a crucial role in building public confidence.

But Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey stated that the Chief Constable should have made his remarks to the Policing Board.

He said: "I certainly have been at every single Policing Board meeting since last year. Hugh Orde has never, ever once said to the Policing Board, 'by the way folks, you are not actually asking me the right questions, or you are not asking me the strategic questions'. "

Sir Hugh stressed the Policing Board was generally a success in getting political adversaries to come together.

"There are people now engaging in policing who for 38 years have disengaged in policing. It's bound to be a real challenge, I just hope it moves on fairly quickly to looking at the real issues."

The Chief Constable also revealed his belief that the coming year would be his hardest to date as the force comes into closer contact with communities it was traditionally estranged from.

Sir Hugh said he was expecting further criticism of policing with the inquiries into the deaths of Robert Hamill, Billy Wright and Rosemary Nelson.