The North's outgoing Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, has said he wants independent oversight for the police force, but the office of the Ombudsman should help build confidence in the police. This was not happening yet, he said.
Referring to the Omagh bombing investigation and the furore over Mrs Nuala O'Loan's highly critical report, Sir Ronnie said he was confident the issues raised could be addressed.
He repeated his claim, first made following his lengthy meeting with the Omagh relatives last month, that his office would work with the Ombudsman's in a professional manner.
He was speaking at a weekend seminar hosted by the Irish Association in Belfast which addressed the policing structures' effectiveness and accountability.
Sir Ronnie said the new beginning for policing, which was clearly needed following the paramilitary ceasefires in 1994, depended on new arrangements and new co-operation.
He described himself as "a strong supporter" of the Patten report, adding that 80-85 per cent of it overlapped with the RUC's own review of policing following the ceasefires.
One the oversight question, the Chief Constable said: "You can't be a judge in your own case."
In a thinly veiled reference to Sinn Féin, which is refusing to sign up to the police service and the Policing Board, Sir Ronnie also called on critics to stop carping and to make a contribution.
He reserved particular praise for the Policing Board and for the way ahead for the Omagh investigation which it unanimously agreed last week. That achievement and the earlier agreement over the police crest augured well, he said. He concluded by saying that as far as policing was concerned, the trend was "inexorably positive".
Mr Tom Kelly, a nationalist independent member of the board, told the seminar: "We are still having difficulty adjusting to policing to the satisfaction of both communities in Northern Ireland."
He said such difficulty was based on different experiences of policing by three communities: nationalists, unionists and those who serve in the police. He, too, said that Sinn Féin should come on board the new policing structures.
"How can you be in government and yet disavow yourself from the responsibilities of office regarding law and order?" he asked. Such a position was "intolerably hypocritical".
Mr Kelly called for a clampdown on what he called the "left-over architecture of loyalist paramilitarism now showing itself as pure criminality".
The former Taoiseach, Dr Garret FitzGerald, speaking from the floor, said of the agreement, struck last week after three days' talks at the board, that "rationality has prevailed over fear".