The new PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde has called for there to be no more cuts in staffing levels, as the police struggle to crack down on widespread street disturbances.

As the crisis in manning levels of the PSNI continues, Hugh Orde echoed the call by Colin Cramphorn –the Acting Chief Constable since the departure of Sir Ronnie Flanagan in March – for there to be no further cuts in police strength as envisioned under the Patten Report.

Republican and nationalist representatives have both been lobbying for the full implementation of the Patten proposals, which would see the end of the 2,000-strong full-time reserve and the merging of the Special Branch with CID.

"The reserves have played a vital role in recent history, they deserve certainty. We need to recognise that… the Patten recommendations are absolutely clear, but I need to be absolutely clear that at the moment I need the reserve – I need them to continue to carry out the job. They're all front-line officers protecting communities and I will need them for the foreseeable future," he said.

Mr Orde has pledged to introduce some "radical" changes in order to shore up the loss of experienced detectives who have left as a result of the severance schemes provided for through Patten.

He said: "Patten has ripped the guts out of the top and some very high-quality people have left. We don’t have time so I am going to do some very radical stuff, I think.

“We will make people detectives and we will train them. Whilst that training process is going on, there are some risks but the alternative is we do nothing."

The message coming out of the chief constable's office for past 12 months has been that the while Patten proposals are dependent upon a "normal policing environment," according senior officers this has not yet been achieved. Therefore policing is still reliant on the full-time reserve and the intelligence-gathering role of the Special Branch, said the new Chief Constable.

"We need more detectives. Patten did not foresee the amount of terrorism that would continue in 'peacetime' policing and got rid of a disproportionate number, basically ripping the guts out of the CID.

"We've lost some very competent, experienced officers, but there is a national shortage of detectives, which means we've got to think differently about recruiting and training, and how we provide support for CID, which could mean putting pressure on other units, so it's difficult," he said.

(GMcG)