Sir Hugh under fire after criticism of policing board

PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde is under fire after he accused the Northern Ireland Policing Board of going “a bit tribal”.

The Board is to seek urgent clarification about Sir Hugh’s remarks made at a business breakfast with PR professionals in Dublin last week.

It was reported that he was strongly critical of the body and is reported to have said the board had “gone a bit tribal”, with elected members more interested in political debate than policing issues.

He said: “I get more strategic questions, I have to say, from my junior officers than I do currently from the police board. Because the police board’s gone a bit tribal at the moment.”

He said that despite the board being there to hold him to account he is often not consulted on serious policing issues.

A police spokeswoman said the remarks had been taken out of context. She stressed that Sir Hugh had praised the board for playing a central role in moving policing forward in Northern Ireland and said it had a crucial role in building public confidence.

Alex Maskey of Sinn Fein said he should have made such comments to the board.

Mr Maskey said he was surprised by the comments adding: “I certainly have been at every single policing board meeting since last year.

“Hugh Orde has never, ever once said to the policing board, ‘by the way folks, you are not actually asking me the right questions, or you are not asking me the strategic questions’.

“So if he has that type of an observation to make, he should make it at the policing board.”

The chief constable also revealed his belief that the coming year would be his hardest to date as the force comes into closer contact with communities it was traditionally estranged from.

Sir Hugh said he was expecting further criticism of policing with the inquiries into the deaths of Robert Hamill, Billy Wright and Rosemary Nelson.

This week Sir Hugh meets Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, with crime in west Belfast among the issues to be discussed.

Last week, Mr Adams said the IRA would not return to “dealing with criminality” in nationalist areas.

“It’s a very powerful statement from Gerry Adams,” Sir Hugh said at the same breakfast meeting.

“Those sort of statements contribute to the new world because it’s de facto saying there is only one police service in Northern Ireland – and it’s mine.”

Sir Hugh added: “The first public meeting that I had with Gerry Adams was important, it was symbolically important, but the reality is for many years police officers from my organisation and the RUC were talking to Sinn Fein behind the scenes to try and move this world on.”