Proposed changes to the name of the RUC would cause much hurt to officers and their widows, according to the force's Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan.
The force's response to the Patten Commission Report on Policing, published yesterday, expressed strong doubts as to whether there would be any gain from a name change. "Without empiric al evidence . . . the question must be asked: why should the pain be inflicted upon the RUC?"
The report said that if the British government decided to go ahead with the change the RUC would prefer either the "dual solution" of naming it the Royal Ulster Constabulary (Northern Ireland's Police Service) or deferring the change for several years.
In a covering letter to the report, Sir Ronnie said there was also "widespread disappointment" at the fleeting mention of the sacrifice of the 302 RUC officers killed and thousands more injured by terrorists.
Sir Ronnie conceded there were many recommendations which were good for policing and which should be proceeded with as soon as possible. "Many of these will, of course, require very significant funding."
There were also many measures which would be possible only in an improved security background, he said.
The Ulster Unionist Party said that the report was seriously flawed and would require much "cherry-picking" for it to be of any benefit to policing and to attract community support.
Presenting the party's response to the report yesterday, its security spokesman at Westminster, Mr Ken Maginnis, referred to Mr David Trimble's initial assertion that the report was "shoddy" and said that the no one in the UUP would argue with that judgment. He said the report was "superficial and quite honestly unworthy of the people who sat on the commission - all talented people".
A major area of concern was the creation of district police partnership boards in local council areas. The UUP working party on the report, chaired by Mr Maginnis, called instead for existing Community and Police Liaison Committees to be retained and given enhanced powers to make the police more accountable to them. CPLCs, however, had been "dismissed without a word by Patten".
Proposals to target Catholic and nationalist areas for recruitment were "totally discriminatory". Instead, the UUP working party recommended that the proposed new police college, which it welcomed, should be built west of the River Bann. It believed this would make it more accessible to all, particularly Catholics.
The Orange Order, in its response to the Patten report, echoed many of the UUP's concerns and described as "most offensive" the plans to remove the "royal" prefix simply to "placate a vocal militant minority" within a minority.
According to reports, the Catholic Church's private submission to the British government called for full implementation of the report and argued that elements of it should be strengthened. These included more ambitious targets for recruitment of Catholics and the introduction of provisions for Irish-speakers.