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(Editorial, Irelandclick.com)

In the midst of the firestorm of controversy surrounding the PSNI's handling of the brutal rape and assault on Blacks Road on Saturday last, it is important that we do not lose sight of the main issue. Two callous thugs are on the loose and as long as they remain at large our streets are more dangerous places. And that being so, anyone with any information whatsoever – whether they think it's major or minor – should still pass it on to the PSNI, either directly or through whatever conduit they feel comfortable with.

The PSNI have taken a lot of stick in the past few days – not least from this newspaper – but if they are serious about making themselves more acceptable to the community as a whole, and if they are serious about a new start to policing, they will have to accept that they have to play their part too. And that part means giving nationalist areas the kind of professional and impartial service that they have never seen in the past; it means convincing those who pull their curtains and turn the TV up at night, afraid to venture from their homes, that the future may be different and that something can be done to address the rising tide of serious crime, anti-social behaviour and the illegal street drinking and associated problems that blight so many communities across this country.

The best thing that the PSNI can do is not issue indignant press releases, or send officers into television studios to defend the indefensible – the best thing they can is to act as policemen and not paramilitary enforcers. Away from the continuing political debate over policing, Chief Constable Hugh Orde will find within the nationalist community a great longing for decent policing and a genuine desire to see the old enmities of the past put to the side for good. The PSNI, much as they protest to the contrary, are not disinterested observers in the battle for hearts and minds on the policing issue, in fact theirs is probably the hardest task of all. While politicians will argue the toss about plastic bullets, accountability, Special Branch and so forth, it is the PSNI's task to reassure nationalists that when a fair and equitable agreement on policing is reached between government and republicans then a police service is in place that has demonstrated itself worthy of putting in place that new dispensation.That means acting in a committed and professional manner – in a way that the force has signally failed to do in North Antrim and West Belfast in recent days – and it means cutting out entirely the old urge to take an in-your-face attitude towards republican community representatives of the kind that we saw in Lurgan this week.

The question of whether to discipline or not to discipline those officers involved in the West Belfast debacle on Saturday is one that can and must be dealt with, but it is something that can wait for another day. Because now nothing should detract from the focus on bringing two vicious criminals to justice and putting them behind bars for a very long time.

This article appeared first on the Irelandclick.com web site on August 11, 2005.