Al Hutchinson, the new Oversight Commissioner, talks to Dan Keenan about implementing Patten.
Mr Al Hutchinson, former assistant commissioner with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, is poised to become the watchdog for police reform in the North.
His task will be to report on whether the blueprint for policing, set out by Patten, is being implemented. He is confident most of the job will be done by 2005.
Despite the sensitive nature of his post, he admits he knew little about Northern Ireland when he first agreed to come to Belfast just three years ago. "I was not familiar, except in general terms, with Northern Ireland history," he says.
"Like many people in the world I'd seen a lot of the negative headlines and the reporting of the Troubles."
He is succeeding Mr Tom Constantine, former head of the New York police and the US Drug Enforcement Agency, and he admits it will not be easy.
Mr Constantine was well known for his objective, no-nonsense approach to the implementation of the Patten report on policing. Courtesy of nine reports scrutinising the roll-out of policing reform, he made a success of the post which, he said, many had warned him against.
Mr Constantine retires today and Mr Hutchinson, his former chief-of-staff assumes the post.
As he eases himself behind the desk at the pleasant but utilitarian office in suburban south Belfast, Mr Hutchinson surveys the local scene. And, subject to some qualification, he likes what he sees.
Northern Ireland is "much like any other society, with obvious differences," he says. "It's really more normalised than the headlines report."
Now well-read on the history of present day Belfast, he sees it as less of a place apart. "There's a lot of commonality throughout the world in policing, not least of which is the dedication of police officers - the same skills have to be applied, the same ethos and values."
He sees integrity, a desire to see a fair policing service and honesty at the core of the fledgling PSNI - just as he knew it in his native Ontario. But what does he think of the plan for the most radical overhaul of a civilian force in western Europe? "I think it was a very well presented, logical report. The pieces all fit well together. But it takes a second or third reading to appreciate the depth of it." He re-reads it regularly. "It's just a great framework for policing."
He praises the themes on accountability, the ideas which led to the definitions of the chief constable's role and the place of the Policing Board which holds the service to account.
The insertion of the Policing Ombudsman's office and other checks and balances impress him greatly.
Some of these ideas "were really classic, and could be a model for any police agency anywhere in the world," he says. Other ideas "exemplify best practices that were out there in 1998-9 when Patten was out there reporting".
All through that report, hailed by nationalist politicians but challenged by unionists for its call to abolish the RUC, were solid proposals based on the most thorough thinking at the time, he says.
Human rights training, employment of new information technology, working within the community, co-operating on a global level with other services - all are referred to in the most positive terms. "When Patten's commissioners put all this together it was a well-thought-out piece of work and it came from consultation with the people. It tried to achieve a consensus and a rendering of that consensus."
He is reluctant to pass any view on the old RUC and adds he is not in a position to give a personal appreciation of the force since the bulk of his experience is with the new PSNI on the streets.
"I'd probably prefer to deal with the new police service," he says by way of a neat side-step.
Of course there are plenty of politically contentious issues lying in wait which the new man cannot avoid.
First among these is the hotly disputed issue of Special Branch which takes on added political importance when viewed against the backdrop of allegations of paramilitary collusion and the persistence of Sinn Féin's boycott of the new dispensation.
Detailed plans to reform intelligence-gathering flopped onto the commissioner's desk on November 14th and only an early assessment has been made so far.
Mr Hutchinson's first report under his own name, due in April, will deal with "the force within a force" and is eagerly anticipated.
"The entity that was called Special Branch will no longer exist in that name.
"Technically it doesn't exist now and its functions have been divided out into the organisation and further changes will come.
"The intelligence-gathering capacity will now not only be used for terrorist activities but will also be used for criminal activities - often the two overlap nowadays in terms of organised crime.
"What we expect to see, if the \ plan is brought to fruition is really one entity that deals with crime, and a sub-entity that deals with criminal intelligence-gathering that may relate to terrorist activities."
He admits there his very role could hinder the effective delivery of policing, his office taking its place in some 15 bodies which provide scrutiny and democratic accountability of the new police service.
It must be one of the most closely watched and investigated services in the democratic world.
"I would agree, there is a danger that it could hinder. But in the end the democratic process will decide how much oversight there is. It is what society here demands."
He claims that Patten recognised this when he set the term of the Oversight Commissioner at five years.
His term ends in May 2005 and Mr Hutchinson is in little doubt that the Policing Board and Ms Nuala O'Loan's office are more than capable of providing the oversight as the remainder of Patten is rolled out.