New PSNI chief Mr Hugh Orde says he has inherited a gutted, demoralised and technically inadequate police service.
"This place has had the guts ripped out of it in terms of investigators," Mr Orde said in an interview in the London Independentnewspaper.
Mr Orde claimed the force lacked a proper system for investigating murders, its performance indicators are "in freefall" and its technology is in the "Dark Ages". The force is "desperately" short of detectives and has low morale, he said.
He also said a report into the killing of the Belfast solicitor Mr Pat Finucane 13 years ago will be "historic" in its impact when it is delivered later this year.
Mr Orde, who has taken over from Sir Ronnie Flanagan after 26 years in London's Metropolitan police, spoke frustratingly about the service's "typewriter culture".
He has promised not to be swayed by the pressures of political expediency. "If we get policing wrong here our impact on the peace process could be catastrophic," Mr Orde said. "But I won't play games. I won't be the fall guy for the political big picture. My focus is on policing".
"This is the most challenging policing environment in the world," Mr Orde said.
Yesterday the new chief vowed to crack down on the paramilitary chiefs who have orchestrated a series of unsolved sectarian murders. He outlined plans to oversee a major review of murder investigations in a bid to capture those who ordered and carried out the killings.