President Mary McAleese today praised the transformation of policing in Northern Ireland as moving toward a new era in community policing.
Addressing a Belfast conference celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust, she said cross-Border policing and political relations had never been better nor more comprehensive.
Mrs McAleese said the high level of cross-community trust required to police effectively was a credit to all those concerned. The metamorphosis set in train by the Patten policing reforms in 1999 - which led from the RUC to the PSNI - was very difficult for a lot of people both inside and outside the police service, she said.
“Yet the leap of faith made by so many of you, at times with heavy hearts and uncertainty, allowed Northern Ireland to take a giant step towards a completely new era in community policing.
“The new Chief Constable of the PSNI, Matt Baggott I know intends to build on the legacy of his distinguished predecessor, Sir Hugh Orde, with a strong focus on community policing and I use this opportunity to wish him and the police service every success,” the President said.
Mrs McAleese called for a final end to terrorist violence, condemning those still wedded to the old culture seen in the “sporadic episodes of shocking sectarian violence and in the cowardly murders of soldiers at Massereene and Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon”.
She said Constable Carroll had been a student of the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust studying for a degree in Manchester. It was awarded posthumously to his widow Kate who made the lonely journey to England to collect it, the president noted.
“We want no more such journeys, no more such losses and we are all learning that the closer, the more collegially we work together the more we close down and suffocate the attitudes which keep alive the remnants of the tired old, redundant culture of mutual contempt and conflict.
“To get where we are has involved considerable sacrifice and suffering, some of it still raw and sore. The trust has been an important companion, helping people move beyond the physical and emotional pain to new hope," Mrs McAleese told the audience.
PA