Former Northern Ireland police oversight commissioner Al Hutchinson has today taken over the post of Northern Police Ombudsman from Nuala O'Loan, who stands down after seven years service.
Mr Hutchinson, a Canadian who achieved high rank in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, praised Mrs O'Loan's independence and impartiality in an often controversial period in office.
In 2002 she was scathingly critical of how the RUC investigated the 1998 Real IRA Omagh bombing. Last year she found that RUC special branch colluded with the UVF in north Belfast.
Mr Hutchinson said: "In just seven years Nuala and her team have created a system for dealing with complaints from members of the public about the police which has won an international reputation for its independence and impartiality. I share that vision and it is my privilege and responsibility to continue that work."
Mrs O'Loan praised Mr Hutchinson as a man with a strong reputation for integrity. During her tenure Mrs O'Loan built up considerable cross-community support. Nonetheless, as she left she faced both praise and criticism.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said she played a crucial role in establishing her office as a central part of the policing reforms proposed by the Patten Commission.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said after visiting her yesterday that she and her team carried out their duties in a professional, diligent manner.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan said she carried out her work with valour and distinction, championing the rights of victims and acting "absolutely without fear or political favour, even when her findings made uncomfortable reading for the [British and Irish] governments which had appointed her".
"Her critics were not fit to play the ball so they played the woman. The attacks on her were politically motivated and personally vindictive, but they never had substance," he added. "Ordinary, fair-minded people knew the value of her and her work, and so do fair-minded police officers."
DUP Assembly member Jimmy Spratt, a former chairman of the North's police union, the Police Federation, said many serving and retired police officers perceived her as lacking impartiality.
DUP junior minister Ian Paisley jnr said Mrs O'Loan had been intent on seeking the "scalps" of police officers.
