Amidst all the debate on devolution, policing in Northern Ireland goes on

Day and daily we work to deliver a personal and professional policing service, often in the most difficult and demanding circumstances.

Recently, terrorists attempted to take the life of another police officer, trying to bring us back to the dark days of the past. And yet since then, across Northern Ireland, thousands of officers and staff have continued to show their unreserved commitment to deliver a policing service to you.

Our commitment has been matched by support from the vast majority of people across Northern Ireland, who continue to report crimes and incidents to us and support local policing initiatives.

As an officer myself, I understand this commitment but the strength, resilience and professionalism of my officers and staff combined with the support of the wider community never fail to make me proud of what I do.

And while we work to combat the terrorist threat, day to day policing goes on.

Building work on the new Musgrave Street police station in Belfast is nearing completion. When finished, it will become the district headquarters for South and East Belfast, providing enhanced neighbourhood, community safety and CID accommodation for the city centre. It will also incorporate a large custody suite which will serve the centre of Belfast.

In Omagh, our new state of the art station is now fully operational. It is the Headquarters for F District, encompassing Dungannon and South Tyrone, Omagh, Cookstown and Fermanagh. In addition to the response teams and other units which are found in most police stations, the Omagh station also houses the centralised functions including Road Policing, Public Protection Unit, Call Handling and the Video Identity (Viper) Suite.

These stations will provide modern, well equipped bases for officers to deliver a local community service. Our modernisation plans continue, we must make our buildings fit to support a 21st century service.

And that leads me to the issue of station closures. Some of our stations are old, not in the right place, inaccessible and no longer used by the public. It would be wrong of us to spend public money, your money, keeping these stations functioning when they no longer provide a service to the officers or to the public.

I know how the issue of station closures has affected some communities, particularly in rural areas.

But I passionately believe that buildings do not keep a community safe. People do, officers, staff and the partners and stakeholders working with us.

They are the people that work to keep our streets and our neighbourhoods safe from harm and I would rather they'd be out there with you. This is what we are working towards, bringing policing to the community rather than waiting for the community to come to us.

As the world and the debates move on around us, we still remain focused on our service to the public. It is what we do.