Belfast Telegraph
Could Northern Ireland's former Chief Constable become the new head of the Metropolitan Police? Brian Rowan examines his case
Who knows where that policing and political storm sweeping London is going to blow next?
The phone-hacking scandal has battered the News of the World, blown it away, and toppled big figures in high places, among them the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson. He is the man who in 2009 won the race for Britain's biggest policing job, edging out then PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde.
It is a post that Orde, no stranger to newspaper headlines and probes, would still want; a job, no doubt, he believes he could do and do well.
His work here was the implementation of the reforms that came with the Patten Report, recommendations that marched the RUC off the stage and heralded a new era known as new policing.
There were many big moments and big decisions, among them a first ever meeting with republican leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness in Downing Street, and then Orde's naming of the IRA in connection with the Northern Bank robbery.
Sir Hugh, now President of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), will miss all that, the day-to-day stuff of operational policing, and day-to-day contact with the biggest investigations. And the Met, the top job there is, could be his way back; that is, if he decides to run.
On the bookie's lists that appeared on Monday, his name was there at short odds, but not the favourite.
"If he decides to go for it, it will be because he sees himself as the best candidate," his friend and former policing colleague Peter Sheridan tells the Belfast Telegraph.
"If he thinks he's going to come second, he won't go."
So, there is a decision to be made by Orde, to try again, or not to, and what Sheridan is saying is that he won't run just to make up the numbers -- to be part of the field.
"He brings with him that experience from here ... he has previous experience of London and his national role in ACPO," Mr Sheridan a former assistant chief constable and now Chief Executive of Co-operation Ireland, says.
"All of that gives you somebody who could easily take over that most complex and difficult position at the moment," he adds.
And, with the Olympics in London next year, Sheridan points to another Orde plus-point.
"In his counter-terrorism role he was a solid thinker and that gives him the experience to manage the potential threats that could arise in the period of the Olympics."
In recent days, Sir Paul Stephenson and Assistant Commissioner John Yates have both resigned -- after a period in the news and the headlines linked to the hacking scandal. And Orde knows all about press scrutiny.
He had it in terms of the contractual perks of the job he did here, and had it when it emerged that, while married, he had been having an affair with an undercover detective in England. The two are now engaged and have two young children. One source described that as a "private matter" -- not something that will play into Orde's decision making when it comes to will he or won't he try again for Britain's top policing job.
Orde joined the Met in 1977 and climbed to the rank of Deputy Assistant Commissioner before joining the PSNI in 2002.
Before then he had long experience of Northern Ireland investigating the killing of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, an investigation that looked inside what many call the "dirty war". So, his policing experience is significant.
In Northern Ireland, Orde was able to deal with the pressures and challenges found at that interface where policing and politics meet.
And his friend Peter Sheridan says he demonstrated "that he was someone of independent thinking" -- someone able to make his own decisions.
He would not be intimidated by London Mayor Boris Johnson or any other politician. But will the marathon running Chief Constable want to compete again?
The answer to that question is yes, but only if he thinks that this time he can win.
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