VITAL ROLE IN DRUGS BATTLE

The first director of the innovative Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency
will be named today by the Scottish Executive as Mr Jim Orr, the
51-year-old career detective who currently heads up all crime
operations in Strathclyde Police.

Mr Orr, an assistant chief constable in the force led by his elder
brother, Chief Constable John Orr, will move to the DEA on a
three-year secondment with the rank of deputy chief constable and a
salary in excess of UKP80,000.

He was one of three candidates, two from England, for what may well be
the toughest job in UK policing. Public and political expectation will
be high because the Scottish Executive has moved swiftly to firm up
what began life as a vague pre-election promise, but which has quickly
become a central plank of the anti-drugs strategy.

With recent statistics showing a rising graph of drug abuse, drug
seizures and drug-related deaths despite the enormous efforts of the
authorities, the stakes could not be higher.

An indication of the high-powered nature of the job may be gathered
from the personnel on the selection panel - Mr Colin Baxter, head of
the Police Division at the Scottish Office Home Department, Chief
Constable John Hamilton of Fife, representing the Association of Chief
Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS), Mr John Abbot, director-general
of the National Criminal Intelligence Service, Mr Sandy Cameron,
chairman of the Scottish Drug Action Teams and Councillor Lesley
Hinds, convener of Lothian and Borders Police Board.

Mr Orr began his police career as a cadet with Ayrshire Constabulary
and went on to become largely involved in CID, but with much time
spent in Special Branch.

He is an internationally-known figure in the intelligence community, a
standing which will be vital in the new agency. Senior sources believe
all his diplomatic skills will be required to first of all bring on
side all the Scottish forces - particularly the drug squads - and then
to line everyone up in a concerted effort to hit the major drug importers.

The chain of command will run from the Deputy Minister for Justice
Angus McKay, through the Drug Enforcement Forum to the chairman of the
Crime Committee of ACPOS. Ironically, the incumbent is non other than
Mr John Orr, to who Mr Jim Orr will report in the first instance.

Much of the SDEA's role will revolve around co-ordinating local,
national and international intelligence and translating it into direct
action on the ground across Scotland using every available resource.
Mr McKay is likely today to caution against expectations of overnight
success.

When the agency was announced in December, the UK director of the
NCIS, Mr Vince Harvey, said Scotland was now leading the way in drug
enforcement in the UK. He acknowledged we already had a far better
record of co-ordination between the agencies, saying that scotland was
now building on that to create a first in the UK.

He hoped England and Wales would look at the SDEA as a role
model.

More controversially, the UKP10.8m funding which will cover the first
three years of the SDEA's existence, initially buying 200 extra
officers for drug squads across Scotland to give the agency teeth,
came from savings accumulated by the Scottish Prison Service to fund
future pay rises and improvements.

The Scottish Executive, however, now regards justice funding as one
pot.