Hugh Orde  Sir Hugh Stephen Roden Orde, (born 27 August 1958) is a British police officer who was the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, representing the 44 police forces of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Between 2002 and 2009, he was the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). Sir Hugh joined London's Metropolitan Police Service in 1977. He rose quickly through the ranks, becoming Superintendent in the Territorial Support Group. Later, as Commander responsible for the service's Community Safety and Partnership section, Orde took part in the latter phase of the enquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence and its subsequent handling by the police. Later Orde (by then a Deputy assistant commissioner) was assigned to the senior staff of the Stevens Report which investigated government collusion in sectarian killings in Northern Ireland. He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2001 and was knighted for his services to policing in 2005. In 2010 he was awarded a Queen's Police Medal. Hugh Orde was appointed Chief Constable of the PSNI (which replaced the Royal Ulster Constabulary) on 29 May 2002, taking over from Acting Chief Constable Colin Cramphorn. In April 2009, he announced he was stepping down as Chief Constable of Northern Ireland to become President of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), assuming the position in the following autumn. In a 2010 speech at Oxford in which he discussed the threat of the dissident Irish republican campaign, Orde suggested that "To borrow a phrase from the past, we may be at an 'acceptable level of violence'—albeit at a far lower level than when the phrase was first coined" because dissident republicans were unlikely to respond to negotiation. Democratic Unionist Party MLA Jimmy Spratt called Orde's comments "outrageous" and an insult to those killed by dissident republicans. Sir Hugh is also the director of the Police National Assessment Centre. He also holds a degree in Public Administration (BA) from the University of Kent. He is a member (known as a 'graduate') of Common Purpose UK. He attended the Matrix course in West London 1994/95. In November 2013 Hugh Orde took up the role of Patron of the national police charity the Police Roll of Honour Trust. He joined Stephen House and Bernard Hogan-Howe as joint patrons.