Ronnie Flanagan was at his desk in the RUC's headquarters at Brooklyn in east Belfast early last Monday morning for a routine start to what was to be a momentous week for the force.
Sitting with his jacket off and half-moon spectacles on, his first task was to put the finishing touches to a letter of reassurance about the contents of the imminent Patten Commission report on the future of policing.
"The RUC stands ready for significant change," he wrote. "I could not be more proud to lead you in these challenging times and to watch you succeed as you always do."
The draft completed, he walked across the corridor, past the portraits of his predecessors, four inspector-generals and six chief constables, to deliver it to his secretary for typing and distribution throughout the force.
By then his deputy and eight assistant chief constables had gathered for the usual Monday morning "prayers", a meeting during which the top commanders reviewed the events of the previous week and discussed what was on the agenda for the coming one.
Ironically, although the report was to dominate the coming week, it was not mentioned. The police commanders knew its findings were already set in stone, there was nothing more they could do to influence it and nothing they could say in public until it was published on Thursday.
"We had been waiting for Patten for so long, it was hard to believe that at last the wraps would be off and we would know what the future held for us," said one of the officers afterwards.
Ever since the former governor of Hong Kong was appointed to chair the independent commission on policing, set up under the Belfast Agreement, Flanagan had worked tirelessly to make the best possible case for the RUC.
He established a small review team and allocated them a suite of offices in a portable building in the grounds of the headquarters complex. Their orders were to facilitate the commission in every way by arranging visits to police stations and providing them with all the information they requested.
Flanagan also provided them with his own extensively-researched fundamental review of policing, completed in 1996, which he had put on hold for fear of being accused of pre-empting the commission.
During a series of meetings with Patten and the commissioners, including some one-to-one encounters in the small flat Patten occupied at Hillsborough Castle when he was in Northern Ireland, Flanagan made his case against the disbandment of his force and its emasculation, particularly against the background of the fragile and uneasy peace and the progressive political deadlock that was prejudicing the full implementation of the Belfast Agreement.
Patten and his team completed their report at the end of July and sent it off to be printed abroad in an effort to prevent it being prematurely leaked. Although nobody outside the commission had formally been shown a final draft, those involved in policing were able to put together a pretty accurate forecast of what it was going to say.
By then, with the fears of a violent summer arising from the Drumcree march not having materialised, Flanagan was able to give his undivided attention to preparing for the release of the report in September, an occasion he foresaw was fraught with potential difficulty.
The organisational paralysis caused by the postponement of implementing the fundamental review, to switch the RUC from its conflict-policing footing to a more conventional one, had sapped morale.
"Although some progress was made in putting liveried police vehicles on the streets for the first time in 30 years and dismantling the forbidding fortifications around the 190 police premises we occupy, we just didn't know how things were going to turn out," said one senior officer.
The predominant feeling was one of uncertainty. Officers feared they would be sacked and forced to reapply for their jobs. Some who had been involved in controversial episodes were concerned they would be victimised.
Talk of compensation packages for early retirement caused many officers to postpone planned departure.
With persistent talk of a name change, particularly among the older, longer-serving officers, there was a feeling of resentment that the sacrifice and courage they had demonstrated through 30 years of unprecedented violence was being all too hastily written off.
Flanagan, who is noted for his common touch and close affinity with those in the ranks, was well aware of these swirling emotions and how they were being aggravated by rumour. He was also concerned that some of what was in the report would make his own position untenable.
At times last month he appeared to be a lonely figure, retreating into himself as he pondered what to do, at other times he was outward and jovial, trying to shore up morale.
Some of his closest colleagues feared he might even resign and leave it to a successor to carry the Patten recommendations forward.
Last Wednesday morning, 24 hours before the official publication, he was driven to the Interpoint Centre in Belfast, to the commission's office, to receive his copy of the report and to be officially informed of its contents.
Overnight, Flanagan decided to endorse it publicly, although he knew some aspects of it would deeply offend many of his officers and that implementing some of its far-reaching and ground-breaking recommendations would take time and commitment.
On Thursday morning as Patten began his news conference to launch the report, four miles away, at RUC Garnerville, a grim-faced Les Rodgers, chairman of the Police Federation, which represents 12,500 officers of the 13,000-strong police force, was putting the finishing touches to a statement to be read to a news conference.
Although "39 1/2" of the federation's 44 suggestions to Patten had been included in the report's 175 recommendations, Rodgers was preparing to go on the warpath to prevent the name of the RUC being changed.
"We have made it clear all along that we do not believe there is any substantive argument for the name to be abandoned. Its loss amounts to a repudiation of the professionalism, courage and sacrifice of our police officers," he wrote. At the same time unionist politicians also swung a "hands off the RUC" campaign into action.
At lunchtime last Thursday, Flanagan was sitting in his office at RUC headquarters, watching the BBC news bulletin on a monitor while waiting to do a live interview. The headlines signalled the road ahead would not be easy.
At one point Chris Patten came on screen, talking about his work on the report. "This is by far the most difficult job I have ever done," said the former governor of Hong Kong.
"You should try being chief constable of the RUC," said Flanagan.