The chairman of the Independent Commission on Policing, Mr Chris Patten, learned last night that loyalists have just as many concerns about the police force in Northern Ireland as nationalists.
At a meeting in the loyalist heartland of the Shore Road in Belfast, Mr Patten and his commission colleagues were left in no doubt that working-class Protestants also have difficulties with the RUC.
However, their vision for the future of policing differs. Protestants don't want to see the RUC disbanded, but advocate that it needs to be "retrained in community awareness".
The commission received a fair hearing at its fourth public meeting in Belfast, with only one man, Mr Alex Lamont, accusing the commission of acting "at the behest of the British government" in an attempt to appease Sinn Fein/IRA. Others complained that the force was out of touch with workingclass people in the area. The main concern expressed by speakers was community policing. Mr Brian Dunn, a committee member of the Lower North Belfast Community Council, an organisation for community groups in the area, said people did not want to see a disbandment of the RUC.
"The police are very much welcome in these areas, but community policing is an issue for the Protestant community. We believe it should be separated on its own, away from the main body of the force. We want a local neighbourhood police force. There needs to be a distinction made between the police force that deals with riot situations and public order.
"Our local police were sent to Portadown to deal with Drumcree, and when rioting flared in the area police whom we couldn't identify were sent in. There was no opportunity for us to link up with the police and broker a situation to stop the violence," he said.
Mr Jimmy Ewart, also a committee member of the LNBCC, said police officers should be retrained. "It worries me that we have an attitude that the only solution is to get rid of the police. I don't want to see the police disbanded. I want them retrained in how to deal with community issues. Every policeman should be a community policeman," he said. Mr Ewart added that if police officers were retrained then vandalism and other crimes would be reduced because the community would be able to trust and confide again in the police.