Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has encouraged people to work closely with the PSNI in tackling crime.
He said he spoke without "equivocation, qualifications [or] conditions" in explicitly calling for the victims of crime to engage with the police.
"If some unfortunate person is a victim of a rape, or some despicable person goes around terrorising old people in their own homes, or death riders or any of the rest of them inflict crimes upon the people, if anything like that happens then what Sinn Féin will be doing will be urging people, encouraging people to work, to co-operate with the police in taking these people off the streets," he said.
Pressed on the question, Mr Adams repeated the call for people to co-operate with the PSNI and denied he had been taken to task on the question in recent public meetings on policing.
"No-one has ever asked me, has ever raised with me, the issue about the need for people to engage with the police on those matters. If those matters happen then we will be actively encouraging people to work with police, co-operate with the police to get those culprits off our street and dealt with properly."
He said policing needed to be "de-politicised" and made "non-partisan".
"In terms of civic policing, dealing with crimes against the people, there is no equivocation, there are no qualifications and there are no conditions. If one of my constituents is subjected to the type of treatment that elderly people have been treated in their own homes by these gangs then that person needs to know that they can get in touch with the police and Sinn Féin will be encouraging them to do so."
Returning to a theme of his ardfheis address he added: "The PSNI needs to earn the trust and confidence of nationalists and republicans and some unionists as well."
Speaking at Stormont before the Assembly was due to be dissolved to facilitate March elections, Mr Adams said the weekend ard-fheis decision had removed any DUP veto over the establishment of a powersharing executive.
However, he declined to press the Rev Ian Paisley on the issue. "I'm not making any demands of the DUP," Mr Adams said.
"I've made it very clear where we are. The ardchomhairle is meeting [on Tuesday] to review the situation. The DUP has no veto on this matter. The DUP can agree to come into the context which is set out in the ardchomhairle motion or not. If they decide not to then we move into a different context and we move on anyway."
Dr Paisley said yesterday that Sinn Féin had "made headway" but insisted the party's words had to be underscored by delivery of policing support in republican areas."We have made headway. I wouldn't deny that," he said.
"If you had told me 20 years ago that they [republicans] would be repudiating the very fundamentals of Sinn Féin-IRA, I would have laughed but that is what they have done.
"Of course, they have done it on a post-dated cheque. Now a post-dated cheque is no good to you until the day comes and the time for paying out. They have to pay out now." The onus remained firmly on Sinn Féin, Dr Paisley claimed.
"I have nothing really to do because I have done everything," he said.
"I have accepted the agreement I was asked to accept. However, I am doing nothing about putting that acceptance into operation until IRA/Sinn Féin keep their commitment. That has not yet been kept. Even what they did [on Sunday] doesn't keep it but it is a step along the way but it is not the payout that is expected of them."
British prime minister Tony Blair insisted yesterday that political progress still depended on republican support for the police and DUP acceptance of powersharing.
"I think we are closer to that happening as a result of the decisions that have been taken by Sinn Féin. What we need to see is that on one side there is commitment to powersharing and on the other side there is an actual commitment, translated into practice, of support for the police. The sooner it happens, the better," Mr Blair said.