Chief Constable Defends Flag Protest Policing

Chief Constable Matt Baggott has defended the PSNI's handling of the union flag protests.

He told Thursday night's The View: "There will be further arrests, there will be more charges and there will be hundreds of people brought before the courts," Mr Baggott said.

Although 90 people and a further 200 others have been identified, Baggot said the problem could not be "simply arrested away".

"Our approach in the last two months has led to not a single serious injury and that is an achievement by itself," he said."If we had been overzealous, if we had tried to arrest people off the streets in a very crude way... I think there could have been a much more serious problem that we would still be facing."

The Chief Constable hopes the protest planned for Saturday, at the police headquarters in the Knock area of east Belfast, will be peaceful.

"I hope that this Saturday will see a break from the illegal parades to a place where protest is peaceful and manageable," he said.

"But I come back to the point that there will be consequences for people who choose to break the law."

(GK)