Sinn Fein's willingness to meet the new PSNI chief constable is "very important" in both content and tone, vice-chairman of the North's Policing Board said yesterday.
Mr Denis Bradley said remarks by the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams at the weekend illustrated the republican movement's moving away from a "psychology of war".
Mr Bradley, who has been pressing Sinn Féin for months to talk to senior police figures and to end its boycott of the Policing Board, said there was fresh evidence of new thinking by republicans.
"We have been through a very nasty and dirty war for 30 years. And getting through the psychology of that war and out the other end is giving us great difficulty. I think that's true for the republican movement. But it's also creating difficulties for the police," he said.
He added that there persists within police ranks evidence of a "psychology that they're still involved in war", an attitude reinforced by the actions of paramilitaries not on ceasefire.
He said there was an onus on all leaders to "move out of war, to begin to imagine peace" adding: "Anything that brings that about, is a very creative step. I thought the tone of what Gerry Adams had to say was to be welcomed." Policing has ranked high on the agenda during a spate of recent meetings between the North's parties and the two governments.
The SDLP said Mr Adams's acceptance that Mr Hugh Orde could help initiate change in policing, and his claim that he would not rule out a meeting with the new chief constable, was an about-turn.
Last week the SDLP said, following a meeting with Mr Tony Blair at Downing Street, that legislation would be introduced to amend policing structures in the next Westminster parliamentary term beginning in November.
This has helped increase speculation that Sinn Féin may reconsider its approach to policing. Plans to establish District Policing Partnerships (DPPs) were launched earlier this month. These bodies will facilitate local community input into policing when they are established in three months.
Mr Bradley told the BBC yesterday: "I think the republican movement and republican people are open to change, you don't have to look past what Alex Maskey has done vis-à-vis laying wreaths at cenotaphs and in Belgium." Sinn Féin's policing spokesman, Mr Gerry Kelly, yesterday insisted there were still deficiencies in the police reforms.
These, he said, would be outlined in a party submission to the North's security minister, Ms Jane Kennedy, before the end of this month "as part of the review announced after Weston Park".