Later, as Commander responsible for the service's Community Safety and Partnership section, Orde took part in the latter phase of the enquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence and its subsequent handling by the police.

He became a member (known as a 'graduate') of Common Purpose UK and attended the Matrix course in West London in 1994/95.

While he was a Deputy assistant commissioner, Orde was assigned to the senior staff of the Stevens Report, which investigated government collusion in sectarian killings in Northern Ireland.

In a 2010 speech at Oxford in which he discussed the threat of the dissident Irish republican campaign, Orde suggested that "To borrow a phrase from the past, we may be at an 'acceptable level of violence'—albeit at a far lower level than when the phrase was first coined", given that dissident republicans were unlikely to respond to negotiation.

Democratic Unionist Party MLA Jimmy Spratt called Orde's comments "outrageous" and an insult to those killed by dissident republicans.