Policing debate: Policing Board member and Foyle Assembly member Willie Hay used a speech in a policing debate to denounce what he called the destruction of the RUC.
He urged delegates not to forget the sacrifice of the RUC - "a very effective police service" - or the plight of the many relatives of those who died.
He blamed the Patten commission on policing and the Belfast Agreement which, he said, led to the founding of the commission and the production of its blueprint for the current PSNI.
Referring to the lack of unionist trust, Mr Hay suggested confidence in the political process and policing could be fostered if the controversial 50:50 recruitment practice was dropped.
He called for additional seats for the DUP when the Policing Board is reconstituted in the next few months. "There should be no keeping seats warm for Sinn Féin/IRA," he warned.
He also contradicted Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde by stating there were not enough officers in the PSNI.
Wallace Brown, the Belfast Lord Mayor, referred to attacks on the elderly and called for more protection measures.
"Any effort that reignites feelings of confidence and security are to be welcomed," he said.
Only 10 per cent of those involved in attacks on the elderly ever appeared before the courts, he claimed. He welcomed the establishment of the PSNI taskforce on organised crime, but suggested that more was needed.
West Belfast Assembly member Diane Dodds also condemned the 50:50 PSNI recruitment practice which aims to equate the numbers of Catholics and "others" in the ranks of police trainees.
"This runs contrary to every piece of human rights legislation," she said. "It enforces a situation where Protestant applicants to the police service have a 20 per cent chance of being successful whereas their Roman Catholic counterparts have a 60 per cent chance of success." She agreed with Policing Board vice-chairman Denis Bradley's assertion that the 50-50 policy was "an aberration" which "should be got rid of as soon as possible".
The conference unanimously backed a call to tackle crime, to end 50-50 recruitment, to reconstitute the Policing Board and to draw up a severance package for part-time members of the police.