OPINION: Community support will help police combat dissidents.

(From Belfast Newsletter)

SINCE leaving the PSNI in 2004 I have resisted commenting on how the PSNI command team do or should tackle various challenges.What prompts me to break that self-imposed rule is the very public airing of views attributed to the Chief Constable and the chairman of the Police Federation, Northern Ireland (PFNI).I know both men very well (in Matt Baggott's case for almost 30 years) and I respect them both greatly and understand their views.Both are articulating responses to the heightened dissident threat reflecting their primary responsibilities and concerns a" duty of care for officers in the case of the PFNI and, in the case of the Chief Constable, protecting life (including police officers' lives), preventing terrorist crime, and …