It is just 100 days since Mr Hugh Orde pulled his chair up to the Chief Constable's desk at PSNI headquarters, but it has been 100 days of change and controversy.
At least in terms of style, Sir Ronnie Flanagan's era already seems a distant memory The furious rows between the offices of the former chief constable and Ms Nuala O'Loan over the Omagh bombing have been replaced by satisfied grins at the Police Ombudsman's headquarters.
The blunt and direct former Metropolitan assistant commissioner is now running a police force which is a million miles from what went before. Interviewed by The Irish Times on the eve of his first day, Mr Orde vowed he would be both a "cop's cop" and a "people's cop", he also insisted he would leave politics to the politicians. For an avowed non-political policeman, Mr Orde has proven himself to be one of the most politically astute figures to serve in Northern Ireland.
The truth is, there is no option to divorce anything - let alone policing - from politics in Belfast.
Appointed last May in a storm of controversy, Mr Orde told this newspaper he didn't "even reach a degree of irritation" over complaints from unionists on the Policing Board, which runs the new service, that he wasn't up to the job and should never have been selected.
There are fewer complaints these days. "He's demonstrated he's a police officer interested in catching criminals," says Mr Ian Paisley jnr of the DUP. His comments may sound a little sour but, coming from a politician who boycotted the public announcement of Mr Orde's appointment, his words indicate something nearer grudging acceptance.
On his first day, he painted a picture of a police service in something akin to crisis. It was understaffed and under-resourced. Absenteeism was at appalling levels.
There were too few detectives and senior officers courtesy of Sir Ronnie's severance programme for those who wished to quit ahead of the Patten revolution. There was no police college, morale was poor and power was too concentrated at the centre.
With what seems already to be customary speed and zeal, the marathon-running Mr Orde has put his stamp on things.
There is scarcely a man or woman in Northern Ireland who has not heard of him since September 1st or who has nothing to say about him. He has held on to some 2,000 officers in the police reserve who were due for disbandment. He has ordered pen-pushing officers back on the beat and launched a wide-ranging "civilianising" programme.
He is already recruiting among British forces for experienced detectives to boost the Crime Branch and to help improve the crime clear-up rate which he admits is "crap".
He has skilfully taken on board the recommendations of HM's Inspector of Constabulary, Mr Dan Crompton, and set about reorganising the intelligence section of the PSNI. He has made it clear that the Special Branch, the intelligence gathering unit, should no longer be "a force within a force".
He is devolving power from police headquarters to the regions where senior officers are given the authority and the space to get on with the job without recourse to headquarters.
He is working comfortably with the Policing Board and the Ombudsman and winning qualified praise from the Oversight Commissioner whose job it is to scrutinise implementation of the Patten recommendations.
Above all, he has targeted paramilitaries and those involved in racketeering and drugs with a concentrated wave of arrests.
Sinn Féin's Mr Gerry Kelly insists that the new man still has to break the loyalist paramilitaries and their wave of attacks against Catholics in north Belfast. Sinn Féin still boycotts the Policing Board, claiming the Chief Constable's office retains too much power.
There is much manoeuvring behind the scenes however in relation to amendments to policing legislation currently before the Commons.
Republicans were incensed last October when PSNI officers raided their offices in Parliament Buildings following allegations of an IRA spy-ring.
Despite a number of arrests and the bringing of charges, Mr Orde still saw fit to apologise publicly for the over-the-top style of the Stormont searches, while still insisting they were necessary.
It was a most un-Flanagan thing to do and it did not go unnoticed. Some police officers felt betrayed.
The affair could have broken him - but it also established him as a fresh and authoritative figure, unafraid to speak openly and determined to put the past behind him.