Police will not be a political pawn says Orde

The new Chief Constable of the PSNI has started his first day in what he has described as "the most challenging policing environment in the world," and warned politicians that he will not allow the police to be a pawn in the wider political scene.

Mr Orde, who met with the Policing Board this morning, also warned that the consequences of a failure in policing could have serious repercussions for the peace process as a whole.

"If we get policing wrong here our impact on the peace process could be catastrophic," he said. "But I won't play games, I won't be the fall guy for the political big picture. My focus is on policing. If I take my eye off that ball, I won't be delivering what the government or anyone else wants."

He added: "Everyone is looking at me, politicians, government, the oversight commissioner, the parades commission, pressure groups. Everyone is looking in, like the Met after [Stephen] Lawrence, and we need to get the answers before they start telling us."

However, Mr Orde concedes that his involvement in the Stevens Inquiry may not necessarily endear him to some serving officers.

"I might meet with problems because of my involvement with the Stevens Inquiry – but I think there are a lot of people chomping at the bit to move on."

The Steven's Inquiry, known as Steven's 3, was set up to investigate allegations of collusion between security forces and loyalist paramilitaries in the murder of Catholic solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989. It is alleged that Special Branch was involved in the targeting of Mr Finucane and a Special Branch informant has subsequently told BBC Panorama programme that he was one of the gunmen who carried out the murder.

The conclusions of that inquiry are expected to be published in the next few months.

Mr Orde did however stress that he would work to implement Patten and create the "new world" of Northern Ireland policing.

He said: "If people don’t want to play in the new world, don’t want to engage and look outward, that is not a reflection on me.

“I think there will be some resistance but I think a lot of people are very keen to engage in Patten and move on. Although there will be pockets of resistance this is not a force that is resisting change across the board – that is a false impression of what the service is about," he said.

Elsewhere, the Chairman of the Policing Board has welcomed Bob McCann as the new Chief Executive to the board.

Mr McCann has previously worked for NIE and the Viridian Group and most recently has been a Senior Finance Officer in the Northern Ireland Office.

(GMcG)