ANALYSIS: Overseeing Sinn Féin acceptance of the PSNI far outranks any failures on the part of its retiring chief constable
IT SAYS a lot for the standing of Sir Hugh Orde that the general verdict – from unionists, loyalists, nationalists and republicans alike – was that he did a good job in his seven years in Northern Ireland.
The 50-year-old Surrey native took on a huge brief when he was appointed by the fledgling policing board in 2002 as chief constable of the PSNI. He had key ambitions, to implement most of the remainder of the Patten policing reforms that flowed from the Belfast Agreement, to entice Sinn Féin to support the police, and to establish a state-of-the-art police college in Northern Ireland.
As he acknowledged at a press conference at police HQ in Belfast yesterday, we’re still a distance from seeing the first sod turned at the college. But most of Patten is in place, and most importantly, Sinn Féin supports the PSNI.
Sir Hugh was appointed president of the British Association of Chief Police Officers by his peers but is not due to take up the post until September, after the marching season. Therefore, he is unlikely to witness the formal devolution of policing and justice powers to the Northern Executive expected later in the autumn, barring unforeseen problems.
He will, however, have played a significant part in that anticipated achievement. Gaining wide public backing for policing was almost as important as powersharing politics. If Sinn Féin supported the PSNI, then the IRA war was over. In fact, Sinn Féin’s historic decision to endorse the PSNI early in 2007 paved the way for Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams to work together in March that year. You couldn’t have had one without the other.
Sir Hugh Orde was one of a number of pivotal figures in facilitating that policing and political transformation. He was a “cop’s cop” who was prepared to speak in a very straight way to politicians and members of the policing board. But he was also a political policeman.
In the early days of his tenure he went on patrol with his frontline officers in republican west Belfast and in loyalist areas too. He walked the tricky line between maintaining operational independence and demonstrating to politicians, particularly Sinn Féin, that he was leading an impartial police force that welcomed nationalists as much as unionists. Now, more than one in four police officers are Catholics.
The PSNI is on target to reach the 30 per cent Catholic representation target by 2011, when 50:50 Catholic/Protestant recruitment is to end. The only possible block is if dissident republicans succeed in terrorising Catholics away from seeking jobs in the PSNI. Sir Hugh said yesterday that not one nationalist or unionist recruit had resigned despite the recent dissident killings and other activities, while scores of people were continuing to apply for posts.
Besides the big successes, there were failures too. No one was convicted for the Omagh bombing, the Northern Bank £26.5 million robbery, or the murder of Robert McCartney. He acknowledged how Omagh was a particular disappointment, but referred to how he was working with “second-hand goods”: meaning his was a reinvestigation of the original inquiry which took place when Sir Ronnie Flanagan was in charge – a comment that sounded like implicit criticism of his predecessor.
The next chief will not come from the PSNI because none of his assistant chiefs is eligible to apply, while his deputy Paul Leighton is retiring at the end of next month.
Sir Hugh believed it likely a serving chief constable from Britain was likely to take over as PSNI chief. Despite the difficulties, it is a plum posting. “I don’t think a rookie will take over. It will be a highly experienced and professional police officer.”
Whoever succeeds him will face a demanding task to thwart the ambitions of the dissident republicans. He described his seven years as a “rough and challenging ride” in which the conditions were created to “allow politics to move on”. That’s a neat and accurate summary, and in terms of what he faced when he stepped into the post seven years ago, it ranks as a job well done.