A New Year, new decade and new challenges

As many of us return to work following one of the coldest festive breaks for generations, over the past number of weeks, your Police Service has been busy helping people across Northern Ireland.

I’m aware of many incidents where police officers have come to the aid of snow bound families and motorists, or helped by distributing water to communities affected by the recent thaw, burst pipes and subsequent water shortages.

The arrival of a New Year and decade also brings new challenges for the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

I look forward in anticipation to a year of opportunities to demonstrate how the Police Service of Northern Ireland is working to become the finest personal, protective and professional police service in the world.

My hope for 2011 is that the people and communities of Northern Ireland will not experience the disgraceful acts of terror, which were not only attacks on individuals but on the entire community of Northern Ireland.

I think in particular of those police officers who were injured, for no other reason other than they have chosen to serve the people of Northern Ireland. I also think of those members of the community, in some cases young children, who were victims of terrorist attacks last year. The New Year brings a new opportunity for us all to work together to help keep all of our communities safe.

Later this year, The Police Service of Northern Ireland will be ten years old. Since its inception, no other police service anywhere in the world has so effectively and positively embraced such a huge degree of change. We are continually developing into a service that is listening more and more carefully to the community - a policing service that everyone can support and be proud of.

There is no doubt that 2011 will be challenging on many fronts. Financially, whilst our discussions with local and national government to secure a significant funding package are at an advanced stage, the efficiency targets set in the proposed budget will be extremely challenging to meet.

This means that we must continue to identify and deliver efficiencies without compromising on the service we deliver. The terrorist threat has not diminished and we will continue to do everything we can to frustrate and detect those who seek to cause harm. And later in the Spring of this year, we will publish our policing commitments to you, so that you can be clear on the standards of service you can expect from your police service.

We will do everything we can to ensure that we deliver on everything that we have promised, but in return, I again ask you to fully support us in our efforts to keep all communities safe - whether that is safe from crime or anti-social behaviour, safe from danger caused by hazardous weather conditions, or safe from terrorism.

Together we can ensure that we deliver, and that you receive the police service that we all want.