Our Commitments to you

If you have been listening to the news today, no doubt you will have heard your Chief Constable speaking about our Policing Commitments to you.

I don't intend to go into them in detail, because over the next few weeks your very own personal copy of our 10 pledges will drop through your letter box.

The most important point to highlight is that these Commitments are a result of having listened to you, your neighbours, public representatives and community leaders. These are things which you have told us matter most.

We are here to deliver a Police Service to you regardless of religion, politics, cultural identity, age, gender or sexual orientation. This is not about having a set of promises to hang on the wall in your local police station, but about standards that you can judge us upon. We will also give you the opportunity to tell us how well you think we have performed against those standards.

We have already delivered significant crime reductions, increased confidence and more police officers to visible policing roles and through our Commitments we hope to build on these achievements and deliver even more.

We know that the vast majority of people support us and want to work in partnership with us. Your support is vital to ensure that the small number of people who want us to fail and drag us back to the past do not succeed. Quite frankly they have nothing to offer society as an alternative.

The Chief Constable is absolutely determined and personally committed to delivering personal, professional and protective policing to every single person in Northern Ireland. This for me shows the commitment of our Chief Constable to raise policing here to another level and I know he is absolutely determined to see this through over the next few years. This will not be easy - it is undoubtedly very challenging and it is my privilege to support him in this regard.

I hope, in the words of your Chief Constable that: "One day all communities will simply say that the Police Service of Northern Ireland is our police."

These are our promises to you which I believe we can deliver. We are setting ourselves high standards. With your help and support, I believe we can achieve them.

Together we can make a difference

At the end of a very difficult week, on Friday afternoon I attended a joint Presidents and Duke of Edinburgh Award information event at St Mary’s High School in Limavady. Pupils from St Patrick's, Rossmar, Limavady High and Limavady Grammar were also present.

I was met by the principal, in the shadow of a rather large sign showing an image of five pupils, one from each of the five schools, running along the beach at Downhill with the cliffs and the Mussenden Temple in the background. As I looked at the sign, I thought of the week that had passed and the coming together of so many people, from different backgrounds and viewpoints, to speak with one voice of condemnation and support.

But this unity of schools in Limavady was not new, nor even recent. This was a relationship forged over time, of pupils coming together to learn with, respect and understand one another. This relationship was not born out of some government strategy, but by a genuine desire to see the future generations of Limavady grow up together in a society free from sectarianism. A shining example to us all.

Some young people present were already involved in one of the schemes whilst others were thinking about joining. As I spoke to them about my experiences of taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, I couldn’t help but remind them of the important choices which they are required to make.

I reminded them of the choice that our colleague, Constable Ronan Kerr, had made to join the Police Service of Northern Ireland and how he had wanted to be someone who helped people and who made a difference. He had taken the decision to serve his community and the people of Northern Ireland, through the very honourable and selfless profession of Policing.

The support which the Police Service has received over the past week has been powerful. The public outpouring of sympathy and condemnation and the show of solidarity at the various rallies has, I have no doubt, greatly helped the Kerr family who must be feeling such a devastating sense of loss.

Ronan’s death can and must be a turning point. Everyone must continue to speak out against those who carry out these attacks, and stress as so many have already clearly stated, that they are ‘Not in my Name’.

Terrorists have no respect for any member of our community, a point they clearly made again at the weekend, by abandoning a bomb under the main Belfast to Dublin road in Newry.

As your police service we will continue to do everything we can, not just to bring those responsible for Ronan’s death to justice, but also to prevent and detect those who indiscriminately place others at risk.

We are all the more determined to deliver a personal, professional and protective police service to everyone.

Just like those five schools in Limavady, together we can make a difference.

We are your police service

It is difficult to contemplate the sense of grief being experienced by the Kerr family following the loss of Ronan. I listened to the words of Mrs Kerr and I echo her call that Ronan's death must not be in vain. If ever there was a time that the community needs to fully stand behind its police service, it is now. Ronan was our officer but he was more importantly your officer.

In the Police Service we have lost a colleague – and our pain is immense. There is also shock and great sadness in the community, who have lost a bright young man. Ronan Kerr had been a police officer for 6 months. He had been a member of the community here for the 25 years of his too short life.

I have the absolute privilege to represent an organisation of men and women, like Ronan, whose bravery and commitment continues to astound me. We are men and women who have grown up here; we live here; our children go to school here. We are your police service. We belong to you; we want to protect you; protect your family and protect the future for all of us.

Those people who try to justify these terrible actions, have in the past, spoken of targeting the uniform rather than the individual. I say to them - it is not possible to separate the two.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland will not be deterred from its goal to keep the community safe. I sincerely thank everyone who has spoken out or contacted us with words of support and condolence. The strong united voices of political and community support are critical and a great encouragement to the men and women who, today, are out in your communities delivering your police service.

We know that there must be people within the community who know something about Ronan's murder or something about some other past or planned terrorist attack. Help us to prevent the next son; or daughter being taken from their family. I appeal to you that if you know anything at all, no matter how insignificant you feel it might be, to pass that information to police directly on 8225 6659. I understand there may be some people who are uncomfortable and perhaps do not want to speak directly to the police service. You can also give information anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers. Their number is 0800 555 111.