The chairman of the Northern Ireland Police Federation, Mr Les Rodgers, has said that the IRA ceasefire is looking increasingly uncertain and has advised against hasty or ill-conceived reform of the RUC. He told a meeting of British police officers in Dundee yesterday that discussions on the future of policing in the North were premature and unrealistic when the IRA ceasefire was looking distinctly shaky.
Many RUC members were sceptical, especially given the breakdown of the first IRA ceasefire of August 1994. He wanted to see peace continuing but could not be wholly optimistic. It was the wrong time for any major review of policing, he said, and he condemned the "awful rush to move us forward".
Mr Rodgers said hasty decisions would lead to mistakes. It remained to be seen whether the current IRA ceasefire would last and there had been an increase in drug crimes. "I find it breathtakingly naive that any serious consideration can be given to the future size and existence of the RUC while increasingly it is evident that we are heading towards a mafia-style inter-gang warfare which will require all the well-honed skills of this force."
He described the current debate on the future of the RUC as "fierce and unrepresentative". Those who withheld their support from the force ranged from "disaffected drop-outs . . . to irreformable criminals and terrorists and those who support them".
Discussion on the RUC's future left many members feeling dismayed, disappointed and angry. "We are not there to be kicked, punched and knocked down," he said. Police officers felt left out of the debate but their views should be listened to with respect.
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, described Mr Rodgers's remarks as "those of a man and a force which is totally out of touch with reality". His assessment of why the RUC was unacceptable to nationalists "beggars belief", Mr McLaughlin said.
"To dismiss, as he does in the words of a fundamentalist preacher, those who are calling for the RUC to be replaced with an acceptable, unarmed and accountable police services, shows that there are those in the leadership of the RUC who are actively resisting change."
An SDLP councillor, Mr Alex Attwood, described Mr Rodgers's remarks as not helping "those in the police and the community who wish to create a policing service that can earn the allegiance of all".
"His comments are offensive, suggesting that those who withhold their consent from being policed by the RUC are disaffected drop-outs, young rebels, criminals or terrorists.
"To fail to acknowledge that many good and decent people withhold their consent because of RUC practices including harassment, treatment of detainees, and partisan policing of parades is at least misleading, at worst mischievous. Such comments poison a responsible debate on future policing needs."