Scottish Government

CURRENT CHALLENGES IN POLICING - FROM A NORTHERN IRELAND PERSPECTIVE

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The James Smart Memorial Lecture 2008
Sir Hugh Orde OBE
(Chief Constable, Police Service of Northern Ireland)

21 October 2008
Glasgow

Good evening

First of all, may I thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this evening. Having looked at the list of distinguished speakers, dating back to 1972, I have to say I am a little surprised to be here!!

When Steve House enquired as to whether I would be interested in this "slot" I have to say I jumped at the opportunity. I then asked "what should I talk about"? His response was I have to say less than helpful, "oh you decide" he said. A little research into previous titles gave a few clues and showed just how wide ranging the topics had been.

As time moved on I had to provide a "clue" to the organisers, so I went with "Current issues in policing from a Northern Ireland perspective". I thought this would allow me some latitude, whilst giving me the opportunity to bring into your world, some of the challenges from mine as we all strive to deliver an effective police service against very different backdrops. I have to say I think there is a "special relationship" between Northern Ireland and Scotland reinforced in policing terms by the fact that we are different. We have different legal systems, policing here is devolved, and should have been by now in Northern Ireland, but sadly Stormont appears to have ground to a halt and there seems to be no likelihood of the normal business of Government moving on - let alone Policing and Justice.

So what makes up the Police Service of Northern Ireland? Well, we are expensive! £1.2bn per annum. Apparently this is equal to the sum of all 8 forces in Scotland according to some unnamed source in Police Review last week, I will touch on this later. We face some unique challenges here as we strive to deliver neighbourhood policing against a backdrop of a highly complicated political situation and a determined terrorist threat.

I have 7500 officers and 2618 support staff. In addition I have 576 Full Time Reserve officers who provide additional capacity. 815 Part time officers who focus on neighbourhood policing and also provide a vital link with our communities

So what have people got for their money in the past six years? Overall the crime rate is down by almost 24% when you compare 2007/2008 and 2002/2003.

Specifically domestic burglary is down almost 34%. Robbery down over 54%. Vehicle crime down almost 57% and criminal damage down over 15%. Cash in transit robberies have plummeted from 134 in 2002 to only 15 in 2008 to date.

This very positive story is down to three things; 1) the quality and commitment of the officers I have the privilege to command, 2) the restructuring of the service and, 3) the increasing community support that is becoming more and more routine.

The introduction of the National Intelligence Model has led to more focused policing through the development of a better accountability framework. Specific and measurable priorities are selected in consultation with key partners such as the Policing Board, and District Policing Partnerships and detailed control strategies are developed and acted upon to tackle these priorities.

The current political climate has led to a greater normalisation in policing here allowing for a better concentration of resources on priority and emerging problems.

Improved community engagement has in my judgement contributed to the reduction in serious public disorder. Our crime figures in 2007/08 have not been inflated by one-off events such as the appalling riots in September 2005.

At the same time there still remains a significant threat from dissident republicans and this must be factored in to all our current and future policing requirements. We also have unique pressures such as our marching season which is still unpredictable from year to year.

I am glad that I chose rather a general title. When I thought it up, the world of policing was fairly stable, the recent Green Paper on policing had raised some issues around control of policing, but the events in London had not taken place.

Indeed the constitutional position of Chief Officer was well understood, words such as operational independence, or in my case operational responsibility where enshrined in law as well as practice and rarely challenged. Some papers and reports suggested that the London experience fundamentally challenged this assertion and was a dangerous place to go. I am not so sure; it was without a doubt a collision of policing and politics although in my judgement the events were not terminal to the concept which Chief Officers hold so dear.

I guess what we saw unfold was just another, but very public, example of the complexity of policing; and the very fine line we walk between "policing" and "politics". My experience in Northern Ireland is that these two "p"s feature in my work every day. I am very clear that we are an apolitical police service but we operate in a highly political environment. The notion that there can be a clear line between the two is simply ridiculous. It may have been the case in years gone by (indeed I saw it with my own eyes at a Police Authority Meeting once) that a Chief could simply hide behind the words "that's operational" when challenged by the Authority. This phrase would lead to the member apologising for "crossing the line" and the business would continue. The world has simply moved on and rightly in my view. The principals of transparency, openness and accountability in how we do our business are now very important, and go to the heart of confidence in what we do. They can be overplayed and indeed abused, but the principal remains in my book.

The more we share information and explain what we have done, and why we did it, the greater the opportunity to illustrate the sheer complexity of our world to those who are informed (or rather, misinformed) by "The Bill" and "Life on Mars" and Hamish Macbeth!

Let me illustrate this by a recent example. The introduction of Taser into Policing in Northern Ireland was always in my judgement going to be challenging. It is without doubt an operational matter. It was a decision for me to take, but because of the complexity of my world and the emotion that still surrounds everything we do I thought the best strategy would be to fully engage with the Policing Board through proper briefings and discussion.

I also decided that in line with our obligations within Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, an equality screening should take place.

By way of explanation the Northern Ireland Act, and in particular Section 75, places an onus upon Public Authorities to have due regard to the need to promote Equality of Opportunity between persons of differing religious believe, political opinion, racial background, age, sexual orientation, marital status, gender, disability, and those with dependants and those without. In particular it highlights the need for Public Authorities to have regard to the desirability of promoting good relations between different religious, political and racial groups.

We have given a commitment to screen all our policy areas, in particular to the way in which we carry out or propose to carry out our functions relating to Northern Ireland. In relation to Taser I thought this was a good idea and would clearly illustrate that we were committed to fully understanding the potential impact this may have on the different groups within society in Northern Ireland before we deployed the equipment. I also thought that we could use this information to complement the wealth of research in the UK already available as we were the last Force to consider this weapon.

I got it badly wrong; some members of the Board were determined to prevent this piece of equipment being used on the streets in any circumstances. As the arguments in my judgement were more political than logical, or indeed reasonable, it was a very difficult line to walk. Expert witnesses were subject to hostile questioning, the equality process I had adopted was challenged leading to a further process which in the event added little value but did cost in terms of money and time.

A legal challenge is now in place and I find myself named in a Judicial Review brought on behalf of a very young girl. The press coverage has been substantial and often miss-informed. The time and effort of many senior officers diverted from other work was frustrating, and front line officers, all of whom are armed, were denied access to a device which by any measure is less dangerous than the 9mm they all carry.

In addition to the fury of the debate, there was an argument advanced by Sinn Fein members that the Policing Board could block the deployment of this weapon and order me not to issue it.

In outlining their opposition they highlighted evidence of fatalities from across the world where, in their view Taser had clearly contributed to the death. However, in my opinion their argument was flawed in that they related the use of Taser in circumstances where quite clearly PSNI would not even have considered its deployment.

More importantly, they argued that in their view this was a policy issue which is properly the remit of the Policing Board and not the PSNI.

Eventually, after much public debate the Board passed a motion stating;

….this Board supports in principle the Chief Constable's decision to permanently issue TASER to Specialist Operations Branch and to Armed Response Vehicles, subject to completion, in respect of the latter, of a satisfactory pilot

When put to a vote the motion was carried. The Chairman of the Policing Board proceeded to issue a press release which stated;

…this has been the subject of substantial debate and discussion over many months. At today's meeting Board Members carried the following motion by majority vote

Those Members of the Board who supported the motion agreed that this was an operational matter for me as Chief Constable. The only dissenting voices to this vote being Sinn Fein and one Independent Member, suggesting that the political difficulty of accepting such a device was just too difficult for one party.

The argument advanced by Sinn Fein would have been, if successful, a far greater challenge to our constitutional position than the London events. It would have meant that a Police Board could order a Chief in the operational sphere of policing. Let me be quite clear on this, I would have resigned with immediate effect as I would have in effect become an "employee of the board".

The debate continues, though I have now advised the Board that I am issuing Taser to my officers attached to Special Operations Branch and my Armed Response Vehicles when they come on line later this year.

So did I make this difficult for myself? Well clearly the answer to that question is "yes" it was challenging, tiresome, time consuming and frustrating, but it was also very important. If we are to retain our privileged position we must be subject to robust challenge. Our determination to give the Board its proper place illustrates to the public, in a very public way, our willingness to engage with the difficult issues and that grey area of policing where operational matters and differing political views clash in an oversight structure. I think this example shows it can be managed. I also think it is a testament to the structure and resilience of the Board, which includes representatives from all major political parties together with Independent members.

Moving from an operational example to some more complicated areas where the potential for debate exists as to what Chiefs should and should not do, lead me towards two particular moments in time that I have had to deal with whilst in office.

The Northern Bank Robbery is one that captured the imagination, at the time £26m was the largest sum ever stolen in one go in a "tiger kidnap" plot of particular brutality. It was not one of my better experiences, to be woken up and advised that Christmas had come slightly early, on the 20th December 2004.

Unusually for Northern Ireland this crime grabbed the world's attention, and speculation as to who committed it was rife and impeding the investigation to a point where I felt action had to be taken. I was aware of substantial intelligence around this crime and briefed daily on progress. I decided that for operational reasons I was going to attribute it to the PIRA right in the middle of all sorts of political developments. The robbery followed a period of intense and delicate peace process negotiations. In the days before the robbery there was speculation that the DUP were about to do a power-sharing deal with Sinn Fein.

Speculation and accusation were rife. Leading political representatives predicted that the long-term consequences for the peace process could be devastating. Sinn Fein alleged that there was a political agenda being followed by the Democratic Unionist Party by making the accusations of PIRA involvement in an attempt to lay the ground work to thwart the efforts of Republicans in moving the peace process forward. Peter Robinson, who was at the time the Deputy Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party stated that

• the consequences of any mainstream Republican participation in this colossal crime will be far reaching.

Indeed our current Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness accused me of making

• nothing more than politically biased allegations.

Followed swiftly by the murder of Robert McCartney outside a Belfast pub, the Northern Bank robbery threatened to unravel all the choreography that led from the 1998 Good Friday Agreement to the restoration of the Stormont Assembly.

I was quite clear that my decision to attribute blame made operational sense and was an operational decision for me. However, any Chief Constable who in circumstances such as these did not feel it appropriate to advise what he or she was about to do would be naive in the extreme, hence a conversation with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland ensued. A lot of other activity also fell into place that led to the bank notes being changed that allowed me not only to blame the PIRA but also advise them that they had committed "the biggest theft of waste paper in history".

Calling this one was a tough decision because I was very aware of the possible fall out, however I was convinced it was the right thing to do. The Secretary of State fully understood the situation and clearly recognised the line between what I had to do for operational reasons' and that he would have to manage the fall out. This is a clear example of policing and politics colliding without any great constitutional crisis.

The knife edge that we sometimes have to walk came into stark focus recently. The threat to my officers is at its highest for 6 years. We are lucky that officers have not been murdered in the past 10 months, as dissident republican activity increases with CIRA, RIRA and the INLA and ONH competing to kill a police officer. Simply put, their misguided and pathetic rational for this activity is that it would increase their ability to recruit the next generation of would be combatants into this terminal activity. Indeed many of the arrests made by both the PSNI and An Garda Síochána are of young disenfranchised youths who have little or no understanding of some wider political ideal in their heads but who are potentially lethal none the less.

More recently an "aggravating factor" that in my judgement has increased the ability of dissident republicans to recruit is the impasse in local politics. It has now been four months since the Executive (the assembly is still functioning) last met. All communities are getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of movement on those issues which are common to both, like education, health and the well publicised Credit Crunch. So what is the impasse about? Quite simply it revolves around us! The devolution of Policing and Justice is the last major piece of the devolution jigsaw.

Unfortunately, whilst the Criminal Justice system is ready for this, whenever it may happen, it appears that the power brokers are not. In the vacuum which now exists because of this stalemate we now find general community unease and dissatisfaction and Dissident Republican Groups are stepping up their campaign of attacks against police officers. The impact upon Northern Irish society as a whole in the event that an officer is killed does not bear thinking about.

I have raised this concern in a fairly critical way quite a lot recently, and intend to continue to do so as I believe it is absolutely my right to comment on political activity or in this case inactivity where it has such massive implications for policing. In this case the implications are stark and the stakes very high. It would be a poor Chief Constable who hides behind some irrational fear of politics and uses it as justification for saying nothing.

It would be right to say that some politicians are less than happy with this and frequently play the "keep out of politics" card.

Of course the criticism I receive very much depends upon the subject of the comment, as was the case when I touched on the issue of one of my more run down and lesser used stations in the middle of what is a strongly nationalist areas of East Belfast. On that occasion Sinn Fein publicly welcomed my views.

This illustrates to me the importance of having clarity in ones own mind before engaging in what I see as entirely legitimate areas for police to tread.

I think this situation is not that much different from the debate around the 42 days issue. Again, many Chief Constables were accused of playing politics and lobbying. How ridiculous, it seems to me that as the people charged with protecting communities against the new (and old) terrorist threats we have an absolute right to express views, regardless of who is in power. Personally, I was staggered by the quality of the debate out with policing that seemed to suggest that we were rubbing our hands with glee at the thought of keeping people in custody for such a long time. I cannot think of anything more abhorrent to any Police Chief, but I do think we have a responsibility to express our professional judgement without allowing it to be redefined as lobbying.

Moving on, I said at the start delivering effective neighbourhood policing remains a challenge for all Chief Constables. In Northern Ireland it is against this rather complex backdrop that we are tasked to deliver neighbourhood policing, the current debate which is included in the Green Paper, rightly touches on how such a service is measured. This raises for me a key issue in the context of Northern Ireland. I am a firm believer that policing remains as much an art as it is a science. The attempt to codify and quantify everything we do has to some extent restricted opportunities for creativity and the world where everything has to be explained and justified post event in legal or quasi legal environments, has driven sensible risk out and introduced paranoid risk avoidance as an alternative where attempts to second guess every possible outcome exist.

That is not to say that we should take some of the top end tasks we undertake in any sort of cavalier fashion but there has to be a way forward where our officers who are desperate to deliver a bespoke service in the widely different communities we police, with the confidence that their senior management will support them when, inevitably, things go in the wrong direction. I have endeavoured to achieve this in my world by empowering the local leaders to determine how they deploy and how they police, and in turn to empower the local teams in the same way. It is an absolute fact that in my world we have now secured the confidence of communities, or some individuals in communities that historically would not have engaged at all through this approach. It is the positive story about a first engagement that gets around quickly and encourages others to take a risk and call us (or normally the named officer). It requires risk taking on both sides to work, but slowly and surely the word gets around. I have recently been on foot patrol in the Bogside, Derry, West Belfast, the list goes on, but in places where even 6 years ago it would have been very difficult. This step change in policing has been achieved through nothing I have done, but everything my officers have done, and against a backdrop that is truly unique.

Let me explain…..

I have already touched upon the current threat which my officers face on a daily basis. This is a real issue for my senior management team and I, and one which we are working hard to keep on top of. The list of attacks which have taken place over recent months is disturbing. What is surprising is the distinct lack of interest in this at a national level. If an officer in Manchester, Liverpool or Glasgow had a bomb placed underneath their car or was shot as they left their children to school, or drove passed a landmine when answering a report of criminal damage, then I am in no doubt that the whole country would know about it. That does not seem to be the case if it happens in Northern Ireland.

Since November last year there have been a number of determined attempts to murder police officers, which included

• 8th November 2007, an off duty community officer was shot as he dropped his son off at school
• On the 12th November 2007 a police officer was shot in his car as he sat in traffic at Circular Road, Dungannon. Despite being wounded he managed to drive to the safety of the local police station. Not a good week for us.
• The 15th December 2007 a pipe bomb was thrown at the police station in Strabane, County Tyrone.
• On the 12th May 2008 a police officer was injured by an under car booby trap device which detonated under his car at Spamount, Castlederg. The officer had just left his home and was traveling to work in Enniskillen. He suffered serious leg injuries in the blast.
• On the 14th June 2008, two officers were injured when a massive landmine partially exploded in Rosslea, Co. Fermanagh. Fortunately it only partially detonated, however military experts who cleared the device claimed a much smaller device would have completely destroyed the vehicle they were in. The consequences need no further explanation.
• On the 16th August 2008 terrorists fired a rocket propelled grenade at 3 officers on responding to a report of anti social behaviour in Lisnaskea. This attack clearly indicated the intent of those responsible in that it was the first time that Dissident Republicans have used Semtex in an attack.
• During serious public disorder on 26th August 2008, several shots were fired at police by a sniper in Craigavon.
• On the 9th September 2008 a pipe bomb was discovered under a car belonging to a teacher. It was believed that the target of this attack was an off duty officer who lived in the same row of houses and that those responsible planted the device under the wrong vehicle.
• On the 13th September 2008 a land mine was discovered at Jonesborough, South Armagh. A clearance operation was mounted and a viable device consisting of a beer keg with 40kg of home made explosives and electrical components to allow detonation by remote control were recovered. It is believed this device was to be detonated as police attended a report of a car on fire during the early hours of the morning.
• Events took a more sinister turn on 4th October 2008, when following a bomb call to RTE in Belfast a landmine was discovered at the side of the road near to a junction. Army bomb disposal experts attended and following careful examination discovered that the initial device had been fitted with an anti handling device with a mechanical tilt switch designed to detonate whilst the main device was being examined.

We are now beginning to see a broadening of the range of attacks by Dissident Republicans which clearly demonstrates that they are raising their level of sophistication and thus the terrible likelihood that they may succeed in their objective to kill one of my officers.

These are some examples of recent incidents which I know will give you a feel of the threat which my officers are required to face everyday. It does not include the numerous bomb calls which turn out to be no more than a hoax, but are still the ones where my officers will attend, even though they know it could be another attempt to lure them into a trap. Since the 1st April 2008 there have been 139 such calls which is considerably more than in the same period last year.

The Dissident Republican groupings are not what you would call a cohesive force. There are a number of different groups, working to the same misguided objective, each it its own unique way, the result of which is that in the past eighteen months, we have seen what could only be described as a falling out amongst thieves and which has resulted in the murder of at least three Dissident Republicans, allegedly at the hands of their former colleagues.

This explains why policing in Northern Ireland is so expensive; sadly the unnamed source I mentioned earlier is also a hugely uninformed source.

It is in the face of this threat that I ask my officers and staff to deliver a style of policing that is visible and community based. It is to their huge credit that they have achieved so much and are determined to continue to thwart the Dissident Republican objective of a return to the streets of the Army and all that goes with policing the troubles. This will not happen because the overwhelming majority of the population together with us and most politicians will not let it happen, but the end game will be messy and that is an understatement. I don't have the time to rehearse the many 3am thoughts I have had around this subject but I do know that if my alarm goes off we have not lost a colleague overnight.

So how does this experience play in the wider policing community? Well, it seems to me that we are vulnerable to over simplistic attempts to quantify what we do. The pursuit of a single performance measure for confidence in policing is in my judgement unachievable, the desire for a pledge with hard targets may be workable but it must mean something if it is to make us better at what we do, if not it simply becomes a bit of polish that wears off over time. What is important is that the public have confidence in two things. Firstly, in a real emergency we will get to you as quickly as we possibly can. Secondly, in all other matters we will determine an appropriate response that solves your problem. That may take an hour, a day or a week, but providing there is a shared understanding of what it is, the evidence shows that people will be satisfied.

In some parts of Northern Ireland police response times are counted in days rather than hours or minutes, such is the danger which my officers expose themselves to everyday. As I frequently point out, a dead or injured officer can deliver no service at all.

Of course neighbourhood policing is just part of what we do. It is not a service delivered by a percentage of the police service allocated to specific geographic locations. That is a crass definition that ignores the complex connections and relationships within policing. I am completely unpersuaded that unless I can show that x% of designated neighbourhood policing team officers time is spent on their beat, I cannot claim to be delivering neighbourhood policing will benefit the police or the public in deciding whether community policing is working or not. For me, the hundreds of officers and staff who work tirelessly to create the conditions that allow my neighbourhood policing officers to safely (well reasonably) patrol are an equally critical element of the equation. I would include our friends in MI5 in the equation as well. It is all too easy to over simplify our world in the headlong rush to measure something.

In my world I am keen on measuring nothing as nothing is frequently what success looks like. Unfortunately achieving nothing is very expensive and not a performance indicator that seems to be popular!

Is there some learning from our experiences? Well I am an absolute believer in the concept of neighbourhood policing. Not because it harps back to the golden age of policing that never existed, but because it can make a real and sustainable difference to peoples lives. It may not be easy to measure but it does work. It also provides a link in the chain that may well prevent the next so called international terrorist attack.

An example from my world, I remember one Sunday afternoon a couple of years ago, drinking tea in a Housing Executive house in Larne, a seaport North of Belfast. I was with my Neighbourhood Inspector and a member of the local community who would not have been a great supporter of the police during the troubles. Both individuals happened to have gone to the same school, gone their separate ways but at a particular point in time both took substantial risks to work together to prevent the next generation going into the same zero sum game. I can only imagine just how difficult and dangerous those decisions were for both individuals, but the outcome of that collaboration and a willingness to look forward was an almost crime free estate, activities for the young and old, the creation of a project to build a youth club in two derelict buildings with all the interface opportunities such an establishment provides.

Such commitment also starts the process of trust building and effective policing that over time will lead to information sharing that has the possibility to deliver the missing link in the chain of the next planned atrocity. I think this theory is applicable across the UK in terms of the new threat we all face. It is exactly where the connections between the top end and most secret side of our business meets with the front end of neighbourhood policing. In my judgement it is not something that is well understood outside the profession and it highlights the need for professionals to run the business not amateurs.

If we needed a timely reminder of why this link in the chain is critical the case of Mohammed Rashid Saeed-Alim aka Nicky Reilly brings life into stark focus. This individual pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey on 15th of this month to attempted murder and terrorist offences. He was a loner and had clearly changed his behaviour radically over the past four or five years since his conversion to Islam and his progressively more radical and criminal views. It is these people who will be spotted by those within their communities and the more confidence and trust they have in us the more likely we are to catch them before they try to blow up innocent victims.

There was another twist to this story which should concern us. It was reported by the BBC that the Judge said

"There was some debate, which is revealed by comments on the computer, about what sort of person should be targeted in due course, whether public servants such as police officers, other public servants or ordinary citizens"

Well I could say welcome to my world! The chilling reality of this statement is that terrorists change their tactics. As described earlier, I mentioned a number of different attacks that we have experienced in Northern Ireland. It is dangerous to try to pigeon hole different groups and identify them with certain types of attack. A shift of focus within the UK could overnight change the way we police. We know this only too well. In fact it is to the immense credit of my people that we are determined not to give in to this intimidation by still operating against neighbourhood policing principals even in the current situation. We have substantial experience of how to do this, others quite simply do not. It is a step change in the challenge to expect staff to operate in an environment where personal safety and service delivery become an awful trade off. The importance of local decision making in this environment is in my view absolutely critical, as well of course as brave and committed individuals who are prepared to deploy in such circumstances, as they always did in the province. Maybe other Forces should be thinking through this scenario.

So in conclusion, what does the future look like?

Well let us be quite clear on this. I think the future is bright. I think that because of the quality of our police officers and the quality of police leadership. I think that, providing we are allowed to focus on protecting our communities unfettered by too much bean counting and bureaucracy professional policing will move from strength to strength.

I also think the grey and challenging area of politics and policing will continue to be…. well, grey and challenging! It will remain the case that there is no clear line but that the critical relationship between the players has to be managed in a professional way.

In a way we come full circle, and the fine balance between proper and meaningful accountability and proper professional advice, and judgements around resources meet head on with many people including politicians having a legitimate role to play.

I have no difficulty with the drive towards more local accountability, but that accountability has to recognise that whilst we all want to engage communities in fighting crime, it does not necessarily follow that citizen crime fighters know best.

Those difficult policing decisions have to be made by us, unfettered by concerns that we will be second guessed or subject to direct influence by those who do not, in the final analysis have the responsibility that rests squarely on our shoulders. In other words, if there is a line that cannot be crossed, it is the one that clearly places operational independence on our side of the divide.

Thank you