Chief Constable Simon Byrne has been in post for all of two months and has wisely limited his pronouncements while he gets up to speed on the complexities of policing Northern Ireland.
During his short period in post he has already had to deal with an increase in dissident republican violence, street disorder and heightened tensions around bonfires.
He has seen his officers make tactical withdrawals from a loyalist pyre in the grounds of Avoniel leisure centre following a protest involving women and children in July while an attempt to remove bonfire material at the New Lodge last month was abandoned as young people refused to leave the structure and crowds gathered.
No doubt he has also been fully briefed on the criminal activities of paramilitary organisations who continue to engage in extortion, intimidation, drug dealing as well as doling out their own form of justice and retribution to those it deems to have transgressed.
Having seen how the loyalist and republican gangsters operate, Mr Byrne was understandably keen to send out a stark warning to the paramilitary thugs who engage in shootings.
''My message to them is, you carry on doing this, we will have your house, if you keep going we will have your car, we will have your kids, we will have your benefits and we will put you in jail,'' he said at a policing conference.
He added: ''Why would I think you are safe in the presence of young children? So what safeguarding powers have we got to take your kids into care if that is a deterrent?''
The chief constable's comments in relation to taking kids into care were widely criticised with the Children's Commissioner Koulla Yiasouma saying the removal of children and young people 'should not be used as a deterrent or threat.'
Mr Byrne was forced into a climbdown yesterday, saying he never intended to suggest youngsters could be used as a weapon or pawn in the fight against paramilitaries.
The PSNI chief is fully entitled to take a robust approach to paramilitaries and there would be a broad welcome for steps aimed at reducing the influence of these malign individuals and organisations, who of course are only too willing to lure young people into illegal activities.
However, his comments on taking children into care were clearly ill-judged and undermined the message he was trying to send out.
