Public confidence in the North’s police service has risen to an all-time high, a new survey revealed today.

Sinn Féin representatives will today quiz the North's police commanders in public for the first time.

The chairman and deputy chairman of the North's outgoing Policing Board have been re-elected to the positions on the incoming body.

A former Sinn Féin mayor of Derry is to join the party’s first three Assembly representatives on the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said today that he will urge his party to join the North's Policing Board at a meeting on May 12, following the restoration of the Northern Executive.

Hugh Orde will stay on as Northern Chief Constable for up to three more years, it emerged last night.

Sinn Féin joining the Policing Board which holds the Police Service of Northern Ireland to account will be the last piece in the jigsaw of policing reform, the board chairman said today.

The SDLP is coming under intense criticism over its claim that it influenced the appointment of the PSNI chief constable.

Northern Secretary Peter Hain led tributes to Progressive Unionists leader David Ervine, who died in hospital today.

AN Irish diplomat has been forced to flee the North because of death threats from anti-Catholic extremists, the Government said yesterday.

UK police recruitment policies are to be revised in a bid to strengthen failed Northern Ireland applicants chances of joining another force, it was claimed today.

Sinn Féin and the SDLP have both criticised the re-election of Prof Desmond Rea as chairman of the North's Policing Board.

The Northern Ireland Policing Board today extended the consultation period over the introduction of 50,000-volt Taser guns following pressure from human rights campaigners.

Up to 60 people have been shortlisted for independent positions on the North’s reformed Policing Board, it emerged today.

The introduction of Police Community Support Officers in Northern Ireland moved a step closer tonight.

The rift between members of Northern Ireland’s Policing Board and a Government minister remained open tonight as they continued to challenge his assessment of the IRA’s involvement in criminality.

Northern Ireland Security Minister Shaun Woodward tonight stood by his controversial assessment that the IRA was distancing itself from organised crime.

The IRA must surrender every property, piece of land or business it has acquired over five decades if Sinn Féin is to have a future policing or justice minister in Northern Ireland, a unionist claimed tonight.

The search is on for a new Assistant Chief Constable for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, it was announced today.

The British government today insisted all community justice schemes in Northern Ireland it approves will have to involve the police.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain will be asked today to allay Policing Board concerns in the North about British government plans to fund controversial community restorative justice schemes.

The Northern Ireland Policing Board tonight expressed fears that Peter Hain is involved in behind the scenes talks which could lead a two tier system of policing.

Policing Board vice chairman Denis Bradley could have been killed by a thug who bludgeoned him with a baseball bat, police claimed tonight.

Police believe dissident republicans were responsible for an attack on the vice-chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board as he watched a football match in a Derry bar.

There was fresh trouble in Belfast tonight as police pledged to get tough with loyalist demonstrators who have caused major disruption for days.

Ex-terrorists with clear records must never become future police officers in the North, the British government was warned today.

Northern Ireland needs to guard against becoming a gangster state, Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey warned tonight.

A state-of-the-art police training college for Northern Ireland was given the green light by planning chiefs today.

An independent member who is quitting the North's Policing Board today warned it could become more polarised than ever.

A man is to be charged with murdering the 29 people who died in the Omagh bomb atrocity, it emerged tonight.

Northern Ireland’s Policing Board tonight agreed in principle to the use of a new less lethal plastic bullet by the police.

Police in the North have outperformed all UK police forces in their efforts to comply with human rights demands, a new report claimed today.

Thugs who prey on the disabled are to be targeted as part of a developing offensive on hate crime revealed today by Northern Ireland policing chiefs.

A racial row is set to be reignited inside the Northern Ireland Policing Board, it emerged tonight.

THE chairman of Northern Ireland’s Policing Board yesterday resigned from the board of a Dublin-owned property company to distance himself from the garda probe into alleged IRA money laundering.

Hugh Orde will quit as Northern Ireland Chief Constable if his assessment of the IRA’s £26.5m (€38m) Belfast bank robbery is wrong, it was revealed tonight.

Northern Ireland’s Chief Constable Hugh Orde will today comment for the first time on claims that the IRA were behind the record £22m (€31.3m) bank robbery in Belfast before Christmas.

Chief Constable Hugh Orde was urged tonight to say who he thinks was behind the £22m (€31m) Northern Bank raid in Belfast.

Efforts to revive devolution in Northern Ireland must be picked up ahead of elections, ministers in London and Dublin were told today.

CHIEF Constable Hugh Orde will face fierce pressure to declare any IRA involvement in the £22 million Northern Bank raid when he is questioned about the heist for the first time, he was warned yesterday.

The IRA today denied any involvement in the £22m (€31.4m) Northern Bank raid.

Northern Ireland's police service is facing a £30m (€43m) budget cut within the next two years, it emerged today.

The transformation of policing in Northern Ireland in recent years has been “remarkable”, according to a report published today.

The chairman of Northern Ireland’s Policing Board today defended the PSNI from criticism of their handling of controversial Protestant marches this summer.