Orde on his successor

The race is underway — the prize is the top policing post here, and Sir Hugh Orde, who will become president of the Association of Chief Police Officers in September, predicts a good competition.

“I think there’ll be a good field from very experienced officers in the UK,” he said. “I think there will be a good field of chiefs and deputies.”

None of the senior officers in the PSNI can apply because of a rule that means applicants have to serve at a senior rank in another service.

“The fact that someone from here is ineligible is nothing to do with experience,” Sir Hugh said. “It’s the rules. It’s as simple as that. I think the rules are right and it’s exactly the same as anywhere else in the UK.”

Sir Hugh singled out his existing team of senior officers for praise: “This team has more than enough experience to deal with the unique challenges that exist here,” he said.

I’m not leaving a force in crisis

Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde has dismissed claims that the PSNI is in crisis amid fears that sweeping reforms have stripped it of highly experienced officers.

In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, the outgoing police chief dismissed any suggestion of a crisis after reports that large numbers of middle-ranking officers have failed to secure promotion.

It emerged earlier this month that 53 chief inspectors applied for annual promotion to the rank of superintendent. Despite there being 17 vacancies, just two were promoted.

Addressing fears of a vacuum in policing power, Sir Hugh pointed to areas in which he says his force has excelled.

“If you look at our murder clear-up rate, it’s the highest it’s ever been,” he insists. “If you look at the structures that have changed, the creation of the Crime Operations Group is a critical part of that.”

It clearly irritates the Chief Constable — angers him even — that critics claim the sweeping reforms ordered as a result of the Patten Report have stripped his service of much of its experience.

“It’s never been in crisis,” he says.

Sir Hugh Orde did not serve with the RUC, and his seven years here have been about implementing the Patten proposals which transformed the RUC into the police force which patrols our streets today.

On the specific question of experience — or the accusation of a lack of it — within policing, he gives a detailed response:

“The equation of experience with time served is fundamentally flawed,” he stressed.

“Our training is ten times better now than it ever has been in policing generally. Our investment in CID training, for example, leads the country and that’s acknowledged.

“Our public order training is better than anyone else. So, we are getting very well trained people who will gather experience over time.”

He believes the assumption that experience can only be gained through long service “fails to take into account the developing knowledge base over the seven years I’ve been here, and the increasing life experience of people when they join policing.

“The average age of a new officer is now 30,” said Sir Hugh. “When I joined it was 18.”

However, he did concede “there will always be some gaps” and added: “Patten without doubt exaggerated some of those gaps, but we’ve coped with that over a long period of time.”

Sir Hugh will leave his post here in September. His deputy Paul Leighton is in his last days of police service, but the Chief Constable argues that the changes at the top can be managed. “We are all replaceable,” he insists.

Already changes are taking place at the top and only this week Judith Gillespie was appointed as the new Deputy Chief Constable — the first woman to occupy such a post.

“If you look at my command team compared to the rest of the UK, which I think is a relevant benchmark, I would have one of the most experienced both in length of service and incidents dealt with,” Sir Hugh said.

“If you look at the critical incident last weekend (the murder in Coleraine), it was dealt with by one of my ACCs, who also dealt with Massereene and many other critical incidents of a type that many ACCs in the rest of the country will never have to deal with.”

“I have officers who’ve been with me for seven years — that’s a wealth of experience at the top end.”

Sir Hugh believes a significant part of the story of the Patten reforms is the willingness of officers to change with the times.

“The notion that people who’d been cops for many years weren’t up for change is utterly flawed,” he says. “Similarly, the argument that people who wanted to join policing are hugely inexperienced is utterly flawed.

“What we have got is the best of both worlds.”

Orde on Eames-Bradley

Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde has challenged all sides to “step up to the mark”, otherwise the proposed Eames-Bradley process will be a waste.

The Consultative Group on the Past recommended a new Legacy Commission with Investigations and Information Recovery Units. Under the plan, the commission would take on the work of the existing police Historical Enquiries Team.

Sir Hugh said: “If you are going to find out what went on then other people are going to have to face up to what they did — terrorists on both sides.

“I think Eames-Bradley has a lot of good in it. We’ve stepped up to the mark. The question is: Will the others? If they don’t then Eames-Bradley is a waste of time.”

There is still no certainty that republicans and loyalists will participate in any process.

Tom Roberts, director of the loyalist Ex-Prisoners Interpretative Centre, said that within the unionist community he did not “detect an appetite for any Truth and Reconciliation Commission”.

“Many people would view it as another way of Brit-bashing — attack the State and hold everybody else responsible for the conflict other than themselves,” he said.

Gerry Adams insists the role given to the Government in establishing a Legacy Commission will not work. “The British Government cannot be the objective facilitator of any truth recovery process,” he said recently.

With such uncertainty across the board, the chief constable wants clarity before decisions are made. “It doesn’t make any sense to move anything else into a structure where people are going to walk away,” he said.

Belfast Telegraph