Sinn Féin's justice spokeswoman, Bairbre de Brun, has called for a new unarmed Northern Ireland police service, which would be accountable to all sections of society. Ms de Brun, who is the Northern Ireland's Assembly Member for West Belfast, was speaking ahead of next month's report on the future of the RUC, which is being prepared by the former Hong Kong governor, Chris Patten. She said that civil rights training had to be incorporated into all areas of training and practice.
The Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, has attacked reported plans to reform the RUC as fundamentally flawed and said that any name change for the force would be a matter of shame. This follows recent media leaks about the Patten review. Writing in today's London Times, Mr Trimble conceded that the force needed to attract more Catholic recruits and win the trust of people on both sides of the sectarian divide. However he described, as totally unacceptable, the suggestion that political parties, including Sinn Féin, might have places on a new police supervisory body.
