PSNI must look to future, says Orde
Policing in Northern Ireland must be allowed to deal with the present and look to the future, Chief Constable Hugh Orde said today.
Mr Orde made history when he became the first Chief Constable to address a conference organised by a nationalist political party today.
He told the SDLP meeting in south Belfast that his force was inundated with calls to investigate almost 3,000 unsolved murders dating back to 1969.
Mr Orde said the demands were putting severe pressure on his officers.
“My primary concern is protecting those who are still alive and delivering an effective policing service for the future,” he said.
“I think the debate someone needs to have is around how do we get closure on these issues that enables and frees up the resources to provide a far more effective and a far better police service for the future.”
Mr Orde said it was very difficult to prosecute someone in connection with a murder that occurred 30 years ago.
“I know as an investigator that to investigate a crime that is 30 years old is very difficult and unlikely to gain the evidential standards that will secure any form of criminal conviction, it simply doesn’t happen,” he said.
“What does happen is that a lot of police resources are tied up doing their honest best to find that evidence, to seek it out and to pursue any suspects that may still be around.”
Mr Orde said he was committed to the Patten recommendations on the future of policing and the attainment of 50/50 recruitment of Catholics and Protestants into the force.
However, he also said intelligence gathering was an essential aspect of police work and praised Special Branch for its role in helping to secure 34 arrests during the recent loyalist feud.
“Special Branch is not an ogre,” he added.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan told delegates that policing in Northern Ireland has changed more in the last 18 months than in the previous 80 years.
He said the force now had a new name, flag, badge and cross-community policing board to hold it to account.
Mr Durkan said the changes, which also included a new human rights code of ethics, marked positive steps.
“None of this would have happened if the SDLP had followed the lead of others and decided to stay off the Policing Board,” he said.
“Just imagine what would have happened if instead we had followed their lead. The old RUC still there. The toothless Police Authority still there. Hugh Orde not there.
“Nuala O’Loan’s Omagh report would have been binned and Patten’s implementation would have been shelved. The SDLP could not have allowed that to happen. Unlike others, we have never aided and abetted those opposed to change.”
Mr Durkan said the Policing Board had succeeded in a number of the most difficult areas, including holding Special Branch to account.
“For decades, Special Branch has been not just the force within a force, but the force above a force – directing and controlling all around it,” he said.
“Last November, the Policing Board brought that era to an end. They agreed to dismantle the old Special Branch and institute reforms which in the words of Oversight Commissioner American Tom Constantine met the ’best practice requirements of any police service in the world’.
“The record of the Board speaks for itself. It has been the driver of Patten’s implementation. That is why there is a duty on all those who support Patten to get on the Board and work with the rest of us to ensure its delivery.”
Mr Durkan said the pace of change in policing in the province must continue unabated in the future.
“A crackdown on loyalists has at last started. It must not stop until loyalist paramilitarism is finished,” he said.
“We cannot allow any paramilitaries to seize control in our communities with a pipe bomb in one hand and drugs in the other.
“We have made great strides towards a police service that is accountable and acceptable. But we have yet to create one that is accessible. We must move to create a routinely unarmed police service from unfortified police stations.”
