There's a notably relaxed air about police stations in Northern Ireland these days. The heavy gates are wide open in daylight hours, and the blast-proof sentry boxes are now routinely left unstaffed. In some places external fortifications have been partially dismantled, and many of the security cameras scanning station perimeters have been switched off.

On the streets there are growing numbers of white-liveried police cars, and plans are in hand to progressively withdraw the omnipresent battleship-grey armoured Land Rovers that have been at the cutting edge of policing for so long.

Once-vulnerable motorcyclists are increasingly being used to provide a police presence, especially in rural areas. Officers walking the beat no longer require military protection or take up cover positions as they patrol and are prepared to stop and chat with passers-by.

They have also ceased to carry rifles, and many are now confident enough of their safety to choose not to wear the heavy body armour that has hitherto been mandatory.

There are cautious hopes that before long, at least by day in some areas, the officers will also opt to go unarmed.

When that happens it will represent a highly significant step towards fulfilling the revolutionary vision, for the RUC, of a routinely unarmed, representative police service in close co-operative contact with the law-abiding community, as outlined in the Belfast Agreement.

But despite the easing of the 30-year terrorist threat, which is making these relaxations and the wary consolidation of the peace process possible, the men and women of the RUC are faced with a deep new anxiety, job security.

They know that when the Independent Commission on Policing, chaired by Chris Patten, reports next summer, it will recommend a phased downsizing programme to progressively reduce the strength of the RUC from its present 13,000 over a period of years.

Clearly Northern Ireland is now heavily over-policed. Without taking account of the substantial contingent of military forces still deployed in support, there is one RUC officer to every 135 citizens. London has one officer for every 250 of the population, while the England and Wales average is 1:446. The Scottish ration is 1:341. In the Republic the ratio of gardai to the population is 1:325. Based on a population of 1.6 million in Northern Ireland, the size of the RUC should therefore be somewhere between 3,500 (by the England and Wales ratio) or 6,250 (by that applying in London).

One of the core issues to be decided by the Patten Commission is precisely what the future strength should be and, in line with British assurances of prudence and generosity already given to the RUC, how quickly the downsizing is to proceed.

One crucial factor to be taken into account in the calculation will be the need to retain a capacity to deal swiftly with Northern Ireland's genetic weakness for civil disorder.

Some officers are already feeling the pinch. In 1993-94, the last year of conflict, the average earnings of an RUC constable were £33,000, of which £7,500 was overtime.

Such high earnings, by Northern Ireland standards, enabled police officers and their families to enjoy a high standard of living. Their modern expensive homes contained luxuries. They journeyed in top-of-the-range cars and enjoyed as least one good holiday abroad every year. In their leisure time they rubbed shoulders with other prosperous people in the most exclusive golf and sailing clubs.

But in more recent years, average earnings have stalled at the £34,000 mark, with the overtime element down to £4,500. The real cut in overtime earning power has been partially concealed by the heavy cost of policing the Drumcree march and associated disorder.

Last year an extensive internal survey carried out for the Police Federation of Northern Ireland, the staff association which represents 12,750 members of the force, confirmed there was widespread concern about job security within the force.

Surprisingly, the survey revealed that, although nine out of 10 officers said they would not be financially independent if they left the RUC and would need to seek new jobs, few had taken any active steps to explore alternative career opportunities if they were laid off.

The survey also indicated that as police work largely consisted of processing paperwork and dealing with the public, nine of 10 officers did not believe they were qualified for any other job.

With only 6 per cent of officers having had advanced education to degree level or higher, the research highlighted a strong demand for external work experience schemes and academic courses to equip officers to find new careers or start small businesses.

The survey was carried out as part of a study, financed jointly by the Police Authority for Northern Ireland and the European Union's Special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation, to find out what help RUC officers would need to adjust from 30 years of conflict to a new era where they would face downsizing and the new challenges in providing a more conventional police service.

The results of the study were submitted to the Northern Ireland Office and led to the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, announcing that his government would provide £4.5 million for a specially created Police Retraining and Rehabilitation Trust.

As a result, RUC officers made redundant in the years ahead are to be offered retraining and further education opportunities to help them find new jobs as part of a resettlement programme which will get under way early next year even before the Patten Commission has reported

The trust will not only be responsible for providing career advice, but will also work to relieve distress and hardship among the relatives of the 302 murdered RUC officers and the 7,500 former members and their families who have been victims of violence.

The survey found that a large number of former officers continued to suffer from stress, that one in six were in constant pain and that there would be a long-term need to provide help to these people as they grow older. The immediate step is to set up an assessment and retraining centre, which will work from temporary premises and open its doors in January.

It is intended that in time it will operate from a fully-equipped £800,000 centre staffed by career advisers, stress counsellors, physiotherapists and medical and nursing advisers.

The trust's creation is seen as a welcome helping hand for an anxious force facing fundamental change. But what the RUC wants above all is an end to the pre-Patten uncertainty where its plans and enthusiasm for the process of moving from an era of conflict to a more conventional policing environment have had to be put on enforced hold.

Despite dreading some of what Patten will have to say, the RUC is confident that his report will recognise that, despite its mistakes, the RUC's bravery and resourcefulness in tackling conflict have earned it the opportunity to police the peace, a task in which it is determined and prepared to change in order to succeed.

Chris Ryder is the author of The RUC 1922-1997: A Force Under Fire (Mandarin). He is a former member of the Police Authority for Northern Ireland