PSNI chief George Hamilton has accused Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald of "poor leadership" over her critical comments about his potential successor.
Last week, Mrs McDonald said she would not have confidence in any current member of the PSNI senior command team replacing Mr Hamilton when he retires in the summer.
Her remarks came after she met bereaved families caught up in a controversy involving the PSNI's failure to disclose documents about historic killings to Northern Ireland's Police Ombudsman.
Concerns had been raised after it emerged that the PSNI did not provide Police Ombudsman Michael Maguire with “significant” information relating to the UFF murder of five Catholic men at Sean Graham bookmaker's on south Belfast’s Ormeau Road in February 1992.
Police have since apologised but victims have expressed anger at the revelations and Sinn Féin claimed nationalist confidence in the PSNI was at "rock bottom".
The chief constable and other senior officers met the Policing Board to discuss the failure to disclose the information to the Ombudsman.
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After discussing the issue with the Policing Board in Belfast today, Mr Hamilton said: "I think Mary Lou McDonald was wrong, I think she was inaccurate and I think it was an act of poor leadership and it has a very detrimental impact on policing and on the peace we are all trying to build."
Mrs McDonald has refused to apologise for, or retract, her comments.
Mr Hamilton said he had "every confidence" in his senior colleagues, but he insisted the person who succeeded him should be the "best candidate", whether from within or from outside the PSNI.
"She said what she said, it's up to her to own those words and explain them - I think they were misplaced," he said.
Mr Hamilton added: "To have the party president exclude all eligible candidates from within the ranks of the Police Service of Northern Ireland doesn't feel like fair, or transparent or non-discriminatory to me."
My legacy disclosure report to @NIPolicingBoard. We have apologised to the families affected. I have warned repeatedly policing not resourced or equipped to deal with past. I have offered all records to independent HIU. No progress on this fails us all. https://t.co/lL5S4c1Mq6
— George Hamilton (@ChiefConPSNI) February 26, 2019
The Policing Board is responsible for appointing the chief constable. Ordinarily, a Sinn Féin appointee would be on the board panel that makes the decision.
During today's meeting at Policing Board headquarters, the organisation's lawyers briefed members on their view on whether Mrs McDonald's comments had compromised the recruitment exercise.
When asked if she should say sorry, Mr Hamilton insisted that was "a matter for her".
"I don't anticipate for a second that we're going to get that," he said. "But, more important than any offence she caused internally, whenever someone in leadership stands up and talks about the police being undemocratic, about being cynical, and about all the other very negative terms, how could we not be but surprised if there is a problem with confidence in policing."
He added: "I think the comments were the antitheses of all Sinn Fein say they stand for.
"They say they stand for equality, for fairness, for integrity and I can't think of anything further away from those qualities in what the party president said."
