THE Northern Ireland Police Authority will recommend in a forthcoming report that the name of the RUC, its uniform and its badge, should remain unchanged, it was predicted last night.
The report, to be published soon will suggest a greater emphasis on police training, especially in cultural awareness, and may also suggest restrictions on the flying of the Union Flag over RUC stations, according to the Spotlight programme broadcast on BBC Northern Ireland.
Also on the programme, Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fe in acknowledged that it was unrealistic to expect all serving RUC officers to be excluded from future policing.
While Sinn Fe in continues to demand complete disbandment of the RUC, Mr McGuinness said: "Whenever a new policing service is put in place there may be many people within the RUC as it is presently constituted who will have to play an important role along with the citizens of Ballymurphy, the Creggan, the Bogside, Crossmaglen, Coalisland and Strabane."
The religious imbalance of the force - which is less than 10 per cent Catholic - was also addressed by the programme. The UUP spokesman on security, Mr Ken Maginnis, suggested that for a 10 year period recruiting should be on a 50-50 basis.
At the end of this period something like 25 per cent of the police service would be Catholics "and after that we won't have any consciousness of the difference between the two traditions with the police service," he said.
Mr Maginnis stressed that his proposal for 50-50 recruitment would depend on there being a sufficiently large number of Catholic applicants.
The police authority report is one of three separate reviews of the RUC in train at the same time. The force is carrying out its own "Fundamental and Review of Policing" and recommendations arising from this are expected by the end of March.
The British government is also preparing new legislation to redefine the relationship between the police authority, the Northern Secretary and the Chief Constable.
As the ceasefires continue in the North, it is accepted that RUC numbers will be reduced, and last night's programme pointed out that those most vulnerable are the 3,000 officers on three year contracts who serve in the full time reserve.
The target figure for a peace time police service could be between 7,500 and 8,500 and, if the ceasefires hold and there is political progress, cuts could be phased in over a period of three to five years, beginning in April next year.