Sir Desmond Rea has presided over momentous progress, writes Gerry Moriarty
Professor Sir Desmond Rea has worked to a personal mantra almost as long as his six years as the sole chairman of the North's policing board created in 2001 from the Patten Report on police reform.
There are three key elements that must be in place for the PSNI to be acceptable to the overwhelming majority of people in Northern Ireland, he asserts.
"Firstly, police must be able to operate in every part of Northern Ireland without fear or favour. Secondly, recruitment to the PSNI must come from every part of Northern Ireland, particularly from parts that were previously disaffected."
"The third element," he adds, "is that recruits can go home to their parents without fear of intimidation. And when we reach the last point we have arrived."
This year has witnessed truly momentous progress on policing that still has some people reeling at the dizzying speed of it all. Sure, Sinn Féin signed up to policing at a special ardfheis in January but, many wondered, would that be a reluctant, grudging toleration of the PSNI?
Hardly. Sir Desmond was in the chair in late May to observe the three Sinn Féin Assembly members, Alex Maskey, Martina Anderson and Daithí McKay, making history by trooping into the policing board meeting with fellow DUP, Ulster Unionist, SDLP and independent members.
There was also that powerful image of Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams smiling and shaking hands with Sir Hugh Orde at the Whiterock community centre in the heart of west Belfast in early July; the PSNI chief constable welcomed there by the Sinn Féin president to help deal with antisocial crime in Mr Adams's native parish of Ballymurphy.
If Sir Desmond was as surprised as the rest of us he conceals it well: "why should anybody's eyebrows be raised at that meeting?" And crowning that, Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy and the Crossmaglen community in republican south Armagh inviting the PSNI to a meeting so they could jointly explore how to tackle antisocial behaviour in the town - a project that remains very active.
Sir Desmond says he welcomes and is delighted at these developments. But as he faces into his third term as board chairman there are still difficult challenges ahead, although nothing like the challenges confronting the board in its first two terms.
There is still the unresolved Pat Finucane murder, and the multitude of collusion allegations around the case, notwithstanding the fact that the Public Prosecution Service decided that no former or serving police officer should be charged.
There are the aftershocks too from Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan's exposure of RUC Special Branch collusion with "serial killer" Mark Haddock and his north Belfast UVF gang. There is the question, can the North justify having a force of 7,500 full-time police officers in peacetime? There is the immense issue of how to address the past. There are still about 2,000 murders to be solved dating back to the start of the Troubles with Sir Hugh Orde repeatedly warning that the past is a huge drain on policing the present.
Overall, Sir Desmond says that the Patten proposals and the recommendations from the Blakey, Crompton and Stevens reports - generally, all aimed at creating a reformed and accountable police service - has ensured that there can be no "force within a force" in the PSNI as Patten found with RUC Special Branch. Police numbers will be addressed.
Sinn Féin has concerns about MI5 - which is not accountable to the board, but privately addresses it on occasions - and its relationship to the PSNI on the matter of British national security. Sir Desmond allows for these concerns, but adds, "I believe that the degree of accountability in all areas of criminal operations in Northern Ireland is in advance of anywhere else on these islands. In fact I don't know any other police force that is more accountable."
And as for addressing the horrors of the Troubles without damaging current policing, it is an issue that is likely to cause tensions within the board, particularly between the Sinn Féin and the unionist members, as was evident at the early July meeting of the board.
But again, as Sir Desmond says, the issue cannot be ducked. Equally, there is a wider focus on the past with former Church of Ireland primate Lord Eames and former vice-chairman of the board, Denis Bradley, charged to find a way of dealing with this most sensitive of subjects.
"The issue must be dealt with in a rational, productive way," he argues, which seems shorthand for saying endless, costly inquiries are not the way forward.
Whatever is coming down the line for the PSNI and the board, Sir Desmond is certain the graph points to continuing progress, notwithstanding that there are serious challenges ahead.
As for his three-point mantra, the first two elements (the PSNI recruiting and operating in every party of the North) are virtually achieved. Sir Desmond concedes there are still some areas where it might not be safe for a police recruit to sleep over at his or her parents' home. "I could not say that the threat, particularly from dissidents, has totally disappeared," he says. "But we are moving in the right direction. I think we are nearly there."