"I'm a married man with a young son and I'm not sure what the future holds for me. I don't know how easy it's going to be to get other employment as a former full-time reserve member," says Mr Paul Bittles, a reservist for eight years.
The recommendation, contained in the Patten report on the future of policing in the North, to phase out the 2,900 strong full-time RUC reserve has been on the cards since the calling of the first IRA ceasefire in 1994, but this hasn't made it any easier to accept.
"The full-time reserve has stood on the front line with police officers during hard times. Now we're being left out in the cold. Nobody's even sure what the time-scale is going to be, which makes it doubly difficult. When is this going to start? Is it two years, or six months? It's having to live with the uncertainty at the minute," adds Mr Bittles.
Members of Belfast's mobile support unit No 2, based at Tennent Street RUC station, in the heart of the Shankill area, are not pleased with some of the recommendations in the report, published last week.
However, the head of the unit, Insp Will Kerr (31), stresses the positive. "The report is a challenge for us, certainly when you talk about changing the emblem and the name. Yes, they are emotive issues, I'd be lying if I said they weren't, but people misconstrue our feelings on that because they assume that we identify titles and symbols with culture identity and we don't.
"We're proud of our organisation, we're proud to serve the community, and that will continue irrespective of titles or symbols in the future."
Constable Kyle Archer (29) agrees. "I joined the RUC. The name RUC means a lot to me. I've known people personally that have been shot dead. That means a lot. You see their families and you still think about them. You never forget them. But our symbols don't mean anything to us. It's loyalty to the force that matters."
However, Constable Archer believes that, like any other organisation, the RUC needs to modernise and he admits that anyone can see there is a need for a greater number of Catholics to be recruited to the force.
"We don't mind what anybody is in this force as long as they are capable of doing the job and they're good steady people, I don't care what they are."
Another member of the unit, Sgt Paul Craig (34), was injured in a bomb attack as a young constable in Strabane, Co Tyrone, but says he was one of the lucky ones. "Some of my colleagues suffered heinous injuries".
He welcomed aspects of the report encouraging increased co-operation with the Garda Siochana. "I'm very fond of the Guards and we already have close sporting links with them."
Sgt Craig says the proposal that officers wear their name on their uniforms was acceptable. He doesn't believe this is the equivalent of pinning your religion on your clothing.
"During certain circumstances, for instance Drumcree or riot situations, I think it could be impractical, but for ordinary normal policing, in a normal environment, I don't see any reason why I shouldn't have my name on my uniform. I give my name to people. I like them to know my name as a point of contact," he says.
Insp Kerr says he accepts reassurances from Mr Chris Patten that proposals enabling new District Policing Partnership Boards to raise money to fund extra policing measures in their areas will not provide an opportunity for paramilitaries or former prisoners to get involved in policing.
"Mr Patten made it perfectly clear when he said these boards would raise 3p on the rate for additional policing resources like CCTV, tangible measures that can be used for crime reduction.
"He did not mean the use of ex-paramilitaries for policing Northern Ireland. That's not what he meant and he made that quite clear, and our own Chief Constable has made that very clear. I accept that these boards offer a chance for the whole community, both nationalist and loyalist, to do their part to work alongside and make our job a bit easier as well."
The four RUC officers say they look forward to an era of political stability in the North. "For the sake of my two sons," says Constable Archer, "I don't want them to grow up seeing what I did."
"We've taken flak from wherever it has come from and we've stood firm. I think the community recognises that. The vast majority recognises what we've sacrificed.
"But we don't want to be a political organisation, never have. Hopefully, the politicians will be able to sort it out so we can just get on with the job we're paid to do."