One year has passed since Hugh Orde took on one of the toughest jobs in Northern Ireland and promised to bring policing into a new era.
If a week is a long time in politics, then in Northern Ireland the same must be true of policing, which for one reason or another has become a core element in solving the conundrum of the peace process.
At the helm of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Chief Constable Hugh Orde has sought to navigate some stormy waters with a steady hand, but as the end of his first year in office approaches, some observers are still to be convinced of the path he has charted for the future.
When he headed the day-to-day running of the Stevens Three investigation into security force collusion, Hugh Orde's presence at police headquarters in east Belfast might have caused a feeling of unease.
Now, however, with his feet firmly under the chief constable's table, he aims to take the force he once investigated into a new era for policing in Northern Ireland – a task he fully realises will take some considerable time to achieve.
Last September the surprise successor of Sir Ronnie Flanagan vowed to take tough action against loyalist paramilitaries amid a barrage of criticism that nationalists were being left unprotected.
Convicted UDA/UFF chief Johnny Adair, leader of the now defunct Shankill 'C company', is now behind bars, as are the three senior UDA figures Mo Courtney, Andre Shoukri and his brother Ihab – all in prison or on remand facing charges in connection with the loyalist feud which has claimed several lives.
"If you look at what we did in the loyalist feud, we highlighted as much intelligence as we could for action and as a result a number of different parts of the organisation got more joined up, in terms of arresting people – we arrested a lot of people," Mr Orde said.
But the concerted police drive to probe loyalist feud-linked shootings raised questions as to why a similar high-profile approach was not adopted to bring to justice those behind the UDA campaign of violence against the Catholic community which included a number of sectarian murders.
Mr Orde dismisses suggestions of any difference.
"It is all part and parcel of the same thing and you have to have the intelligence. Perceptions, I understand that bit," he said.
"We have recovered hundreds of pipe bombs. In the first four months of this year, 65 loyalists were arrested under terrorist legislation, 29 charged.
"Twenty-four republicans were arrested under terrorist legislation, seven charged.
"Seventy-three firearms have been seized in 2003, 17 explosive finds. In the year (financial) 2002-2003, 177 loyalists were charged with terrorist-related offences, 42% up on the year before. It doesn't seem to me we are not taking it seriously - we are taking it very seriously.
"There were 18 reported pipe-bomb attacks between Feb 25 and July 28. One UDA, four UVF, four LVF, nine unattributable and one CIRA (Continuity).
"In that same period we had 16 loyalist shootings – four UDA, two UVF, one Red Hand Commando, one LVF and eight which can't be determined.
"Fifty firearms were recovered and 48 improvised explosive devices."
Last year, however, police recorded the worst success rate in almost 30 years in bringing charges against alleged paramilitary killings, with a number of high-profile sectarian murders of young men remaining unsolved – a grim statistic despite the gradual fall in such crimes. Mr Orde admits this is "poor".
"It is difficult for all the reasons that dealing with criminal gangs in London was difficult. No-one talks.
"I have been briefed this morning on the murder of Martin O'Hagan (in 2001). As an investigation, my judgment was it was a very good investigation, very thorough.
"There was a huge amount of action and an awful lot of work around forensics, house-to-house.
"But the bottom line is you had a man walking home who was shot from a car which appeared and has never been recovered.
"In terms of leads, it is very difficult to start to work on. No-one here says anything so we rely very much on forensics. If you haven't got a forensic lead then you really are struggling.
"People would say you haven't cleared up a murder. But if you look at the number of people we have arrested and the number of people convicted for other things, they may well have been the murderers.
"People who we catch carrying guns get sentenced to imprisonment, and may well have been the same people who have been involved in some of these (sectarian) killings.
"If you can't get them for murder, you can get them for B, C, and lock them up. That is part of success for me but is not reflected in the figures."
Police have said one of the reasons for failure to prosecute was that paramilitaries had become adept at escaping detection.
Was the failure to bring loyalist murderers to justice due to the fact that police over the years allowed loyalists to become "sophisticated" in their methods?
"If your profession is going around killing people then you get better at it. The Provisionals and republicans are far more sophisticated as killers than loyalists in terms of how they carry them out, their research," Mr Orde said.
"In terms of disorganised criminal gangs who suddenly decide to go and kill someone, what you don't get is the intelligence because they don't know when they are doing to do it, the knee-jerk reaction of deciding to kill a Catholic.
"It has parallels with my old job. One black gang would show disrespect to another black gang in a club – two hours later two people would be shot dead.
"It is so quick what you don't get is pre-intelligence, however good you are. Is this some sort of cunning plan by us to allow (sectarian) murders to take place? No, absolute rubbish.
"What we need is to be more sophisticated at catching them using intelligence, using proactive operations, using techniques – all of which are key to the success of the new crime operations department."
There has been much debate over the police's handling of past and present murder investigations, with various theories including conspiracy and a culture of incompetence being given as to why more than 1,800 paramilitary murders remain unsolved.
"Every police service has its problems. Just look at Stephen Lawrence (black teenager murdered in south east London in 1993) as an example of a bad murder investigation.
"There are cases where no doubt we could have done better. The vast majority of cops did their honest best.
"This sort of expectation, that you can throw hundreds of detectives at each case when we are dealing with sheer numbers here, is a false one.
"Even when this organisation was at 13,500-strong it was expected to deal with a ludicrous number of serious crimes. No police service in Europe could have coped with that to the standard that we now do it.
"One of the problems we have currently is the expectation that all the historic cases which weren't solved can now be tested in the courts and judged against today's standards rather than in the standard of the day and in the context of the day, which is a deeply unhelpful way of dealing with these things."
The former Metropolitan police officer is reluctant to talk about past practices of the RUC and when asked if he believes the force did not do enough over the years to crack down on loyalists, he replies: "Ask the other chief constables, I wasn't about.
"I spent two years working with Stevens which was a specific bit of business which has highlighted stuff that has gone to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
"Whether individuals behaved improperly, I'm sure there were. There certainly were in London and I can't see why there shouldn't have been here. Have we got a plan to deal with it now? Yes we have.
"I do get bored about talking about what we could have done in the past – it just shows the absolute determination of this place not to move on. I'm far more interested in moving on."
With a number of notable successes against the UDA and other loyalist groups Mr Orde acknowledges the previously impenetrable "wall of silence" encountered by detectives in communities is beginning to crack, but slowly.
"It is happening in pockets. The problem is fear is the key," he says.
"It is very hard, however successful you are – it is difficult for people to feel safe enough to break out and talk to us. That is still an aspiration.
"More people on both sides are speaking to us but we haven't got to that critical mass yet.
"More people are talking to our local cops – the more we get out, the more we get to the community side of policing, we are more approachable and people are talking.
"But they will not in some places where they really need to galvanise themselves and to organise themselves – we are not there yet.
"We know only too well when we speak to people they don't want to stand up and be counted – they don't want to give statements. That is frustrating.
"It is not unique to hear. It was exactly the same problem in South London within minority communities – some did trust police but others were far too scared to talk to us.
"The consequences of talking to us is somebody blows his/her kneecaps off."
Mr Orde is anxious to allay fears of any resumption of the UDA's campaign.
"There is no evidence of a major upsurge, not on my figures anyway.
"The bottom line is my officers are having to deal in areas where people hate each other and we are in the middle of it.
"These sort of things are bound to happen, sadly. I am worried about every attack unleashed out there – they are mindless.
"Until the communities start to say this is unacceptable there are actually limits to what we can reasonably expect the police service to deliver."
For the first time in three years republicans have carried out more paramilitary-style attacks than their loyalist counterparts.
Mr Orde disclosed that between February 25 and July 28 this year, the Provisional IRA were behind 19 such shootings, five beatings "and we think probably more than that".
"It is interesting that PIRA have increased their level of punishment, whatever they call it, community policing," he says.
"I wonder if it is because the grip they had before was because of the elections. ie. if you do too many shootings you damage Sinn Féin.
"Lack of elections has allowed them to free up and go back and do what they do best, which is hurt people."
The chief constable also revealed that it was "highly likely" that the Provisionals were behind the abduction and suspected murder of Co Armagh man Gareth O'Connor.
When asked whether he believes the IRA kidnapped and killed the 24-year-old, who was facing dissident republican charges in the Republic when he disappeared in May, Mr Orde replied: "I think it is highly likely. If it was anyone else, he probably would have been found.
"I would be surprised if he was found. Experience tells me, given the historic of this place, it is unlikely.
"He is not the first person to go missing and never to have been recovered."
There have been considerable achievements against dissident republicans in the last 11 months including the interception of a large car bomb in Derry – three times the size of the Real IRA device in Omagh that killed 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins.
As the fifth anniversary of the worst atrocity of the Troubles approaches, Mr Orde repeats his view that the dissident threat is "still high" despite heavy infiltration and numerous arrests.
"They are violent people who just cannot give up violence," he said.
"They haven't learned over the last 30 years that this doesn't work – they continue to do it.
"Part of their culture is extreme violence. They are not willing to commit to any sort of political process at all – they are just determined to kill and maim."
The last chief constable's report, on police performance between April 2002 and April this year, noted a rise in reported racial incidents from 185 to 226.
Mr Orde believes many attacks are going unreported with the full extent of the intimidation inflicted on minority communities still unknown.
Last week he met members of the Northern Ireland Council of Ethnic Minorities to discuss the issue.
"What worries me is they have gone down a bit (number of reported incidents), which shows an under-reporting issue.
"The number of racist attacks reported is surprisingly low. We are looking at third party reporting where people don't have to come to us – they can go to a community representative or someone who can tell us what is going on.
"The reported number of incidents from 186 to 226 is nothing. I think the baseline is higher than that.
"It is about encouraging people to report it. If they don't report to us, then we can't get the picture and analyse the whole picture and work out what is going on.
"In some places, I have no doubt in my mind organisations like the LVF are involved – there are clear links.
"The more we get involved with minor communities the more we are likely to know what their life is like in Northern Ireland."
Lack of officers from ethnic minorities also hampers police from helping to bridge that gap of trust.
"50/50 is working very well but we are not attracting minorities to join.
"It is not a problem peculiar here, but it is pretty acute. You have all the culture issues around how attractive the job is to the Chinese community Asian community, etc.
"It is not a job that held in high esteem in certain cultures for all sorts of historic reasons."
With an average of 50 burglaries every day, police are under pressure to increase clear-up rates.
But Mr Orde insists: "I am far more interested in reducing crime. I would far rather have less victims. Success has to be a reduction in crime rather than increasing clear-up rates in my books.
"Our burglary rate was one in the lowest quarter in the whole of the UK.
"In terms of the reality of crime, it is very unusual for an old person to be a victim of crime.
"It doesn't mean it is not important – what it means is getting it in perspective.
You are far more likely to be assaulted between 16 and 20 than you are between 70 and 80.
"Because of the problems here performance wasn't at the top of the agenda. Now we have an opportunity to put it at the top of the agenda which is what I am doing and also give the (police) districts the opportunity to realise they're in charge but it is their job to deliver."
The police service is still in the midst of transition following the Patten reforms and a major restructuring programme is under way to implement recommendations in three key probes into areas of concern – the Blakey review on murder investigations, the Stevens report on collusion and the Crompton report on Special Branch.
"This (restructuring) is not some sort of tinkering at the edges. It is all about getting organised about organised crime," Mr Orde says.
"Crime operations is the most important part of our business. Under a single head Sam Kinkaid, an officer of substantial experience, you will have all our proactive activity, all our murder investigations and all our intelligence.
"We will have a director of intelligence who will deal with intelligence across the board. Some of that intelligence will be national security, some of it will be crime.
"What you will have is one person who will make the decisions on how intelligence is acted on. The notion of 'that bit is so secret no-one else can look at it' disappears.
"That having been said, there will be a Special Branch. Every police service in the country has a Special Branch.
"The notion that we are not having a Special Branch is ridiculous and becoming slightly irritating. Some people are trying to play it that we have done away with Special Branch. We have not done away with Special Branch.
"The important thing is we have to make sure the intelligence we get is used as effectively as we possibly can. That means where we can exploit it and arrest people, that is what we will do.
"If people think I can seriously protect them without Special Branch, I am sorry but they are wrong.
"The structure is such it will ensure proper use, proper supervision, proper control of everyone engaged in the intelligence gathering networks we have to run."
What about nationalist scepticism that maverick elements within Special Branch, famously dubbed a 'force within a force", remain?
"There is nothing I can do about that apart from continuing to try and reassure them (nationalists) that they don't.
"This new structure is, I think, a model for success. I also think the vast majority of police officers are determined to do a good job.
"This sort of notion that I have all sorts of rogue elements is simply a false one. It doesn't hold up to my assessment of the situation.
"Inevitably, in a service of 9,000 people there will be some individuals who are difficult.
"If you seriously think we have got some highly organised structure around collusion, and the irony in all of that, the people who are accusing us of are probably the people who would not be here if it did exist. You can't have it both ways."
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is investigating alleged collusion between two serving police officers and loyalist paramilitaries.
It is not known whether the files on the serving officers included recommendations by Metropolitan Police Commission Sir John Stevens for prosecution.
In April Sir John confirmed that elements of the RUC and British army colluded with loyalist paramilitaries in the murder of Catholics including those of solicitor Pat Finucane and Protestant teenager Adam Lambert.
At the same time files on British soldiers were sent to the DPP, but there was outrage among nationalists when none of the documentation related to RUC officers.
Mr Orde has already said the two police officers had very junior rank at the time of the original murder investigation into Mr Finucane's killing.
But he believes it is unlikely that any more serving or former RUC officers will face the prospect of possible charges.
"The Stevens team's main focus has always been the prosecution of those who killed Finucane. That fact they have charged (Ken) Barrett, I think has been a major success.
"In terms of what else falls out of the Stevens investigation, there are all sorts of historic issues. An assessment has to be made whether they are criminal activities or not.
"That involves members of the army, members of the police service. Those files are with the DPP. I don't want to comment until the DPP makes a decision.
"Will there be anyone else (from police)? I don't think so. There may well be – there is still work in process as Stevens is still ongoing.
"It would be wrong to say for definite, but I would be surprised I think if more substantial files went into the DPP."
With an ever-expanding workload, new detectives are currently being recruited to deal with the added pressures.
"If you had to strip an organisation, it takes time to rebuild that skills base. The suggestion that we have got people who don't know what they are doing is absolute rubbish," Mr Orde says.
The chief constable feels it is inevitable that paramilitaries will be at the fore of ordinary crime in Northern Ireland.
"That is the trend – that is the inevitable trend," he says.
"In a way it is a price we are paying for moving towards normalisation. Our job is to make sure we are getting better at doing it (combating crime) which is why we are re-organising.
"If paramilitaries go away they are not going to start to doing 9-5 office jobs.
"The link between crime and paramilitarism is so complex here. They use terrorist techniques to commit crime. They are flying a flag of convenience to make themselves very rich but are very happy to kill people."
His key objectives for the next 12 months? "To convince communities by improving through arrests and convictions that you are there to protect them – it is as simple as that.
"We don't control the destiny of this place but we can certainly move it on hugely in terms of building confidence here."
Mr Orde hopes that the re-structuring programme will be completed by the end of this year but is less optimistic that Sinn Féin will endorse the new policing arrangements by then.
"I'm on record as saying they need to come on the (Policing) Board. They have to engage in policing at some stage. The sooner they do it I think the better, although it will be difficult.
"I'm less optimistic now than I was six months ago. There doesn't seem to be any manoeuvring going on – no-one is talking about it.
"Six months ago a lot of interesting people were talking about it. In terms of precursor activity it doesn't seem to be there. I think it is disappointing."
Police headquarters has been Mr Orde's permanent home since he took up his new post. A flat above his office has ensured that the married father-of-one, whose family still lives in England, eats, sleeps and breathes policing.
There has been no time for a holiday or any other pastime except his passion for marathon running.
"Next year we will get a house, I live above here which gets a bit tiresome," he says.
"I think I underestimated the size of the place (Northern Ireland) and incredible interest in policing – there is nothing else.
"It is generally police, the top four or five stories, every day on everything and that's different."
Asked about any regrets in his first year, Mr Orde is typical in his response and laughs aloud: "Coming here.. no, no regrets, none whatsoever."
With equal humour when asked about any major achievement since his appointment, he says: "Survival... empowerment. The only way this place can move on is to allow people the freedom to succeed. That is what I am trying to give them."
As the interview drew to a close the subject which has dominated newspaper headlines – the man alleged to have been the British's highest ranking role within the IRA – failed to get much of a reaction, just a slight grin.
Is Freddie Scappaticci Stakeknife, I asked.
"We never comment on intelligence. Who is Stakeknife?"
