THE RUC is ready for "major and significant change", the Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, has told a Dublin audience.
He said he was "extremely confident" more people would be brought before the courts in connection with the Omagh bombing.
Sir Ronnie was addressing a Publicity Club of Ireland lunch yesterday. He said he hoped the Patten Commission would bring about more "collaborative partnerships" with local communities in Northern Ireland, with "much more public involvement in policing".
He was confident the Patten Commission's "considered conclusions" would "enhance the policing service we deliver to all the people of Northern Ireland". Nobody would be "more delighted" than him if this happened.
He warned against change for the sake of change, or change to remove one level of disaffection which would lead to greater disaffection elsewhere, "but within those caveats we in the RUC stand by for major and significant change".
Noting that nothing brings about more stress than change, he said this would pose an internal communications challenge for the RUC.
"My officers undoubtedly feel an uncertainty about the future. Because if we do have the true, enduring, lasting peace that I am confident we will have, notwithstanding the difficulties on the road to that situation, then undoubtedly my organisation, amongst other things, will become a significantly smaller organisation.
"All my officers require and demand is that they know the truth about what's going on; that they be involved in what's going on," the Chief Constable continued. "It's my overwhelming experience that when people feel they're being told the truth, when people feel there is no hidden agenda, then they're prepared to be part of change."
Sir Ronnie warned there would be further terrorist incidents in Northern Ireland, but the "inexorable trend" was in the direction of peace.
Earlier, he said there had been a "tremendous investigation" into the Omagh bombing involving the "closest liaison" between the RUC and the Garda, but there was still much work to be done.
He was also confident the paramilitary ceasefires were still intact.
Asked about possible splits in the IRA, he said the republicans had shown their determination to keep their movement cohesive.