Chief constable Jon Boutcher has defended the role of a senior PSN officer named in a BBC programme about the botched Katie Simpson investigation.
Mr Boutcher raised the involvement of DCI John Caldwell during a meeting of the Policing Board on Thursday.
In February 2023 Mr Caldwell was shot and seriously injured at a sports centre near Omagh, in Co Tyrone, by the New IRA.
He was featured in a recent programme produced by the BBC Spotlight team and broadcast last month, which focused on the suspicious death of Katie Simpson in Co Derry in August 2020.
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Initially treated as suicide, her death was later upgraded to a murder investigation.
A man accused of raping and killing her, Jonathan Cresswell took his own life on the second day of his trial in April.
Mr Boutcher told the Policing Board that he “welcomes current affairs programmes because they hold our hand to the flame and make sure we are doing everything we should do”.
“However, I want to correct some public misperception following the airing of this programme regarding DCI John Caldwell,” he added.
“The programme was disparaging of, in my view, and damaging to his professional reputation and in turn public confidence in the police.
“Comments included in the programme were also not reflective having read the material and facts.”
The BBC was contacted.
