The man charged with introducing the Patten Commission's recommendations on policing in the North has said progress is at a "critical" point.
Policing Oversight Commissioner Mr Al Hutchinson, warned of "slow and seemingly painful" progress in transforming heavily fortified stations across the North and said he was alarmed a plan to recruit more Catholic civilian staff is not working.
Mr Hutchinson also stressed that, with full support for the Police Service of Northern Ireland still not achieved, the reforms were at a critical point.
In his 12th report on the pace of change, the former Royal Canadian Mounted Police chief emphasised real and significant progress has been made.
"A remarkable transformation in policing has taken place in a relatively short period since autumn 2001, and most structural, organisational and functional changes are firmly established," he said.
But he said: "Although the PSNI has made some progress on making police stations more normal and welcoming, this has been slow and seemingly painful.
"The day-to-day reality that people are faced with in terms of their community's police station is not so different from the past: armoured gates and guard posts, high blast walls, bleak and dingy reception areas.
"If the community is ever to view its police service in a different light, then everything that the PSNI can do to put more police officers on the streets, and make its buildings as normal and inviting as possible, can only accelerate the shift in its relationship with the community," he said.
With parts of the public still to back the PSNI, including republicans, he called for a big new push. "There is a sense that it has lost momentum, and that there is a need to refresh the effort," he said.
Attempts to bring in more Catholic officers have been replicated among civilian staff. But the commissioner insisted: "They are not working as intended, and likely cannot work in the longer term.
"Our last statistics indicate that the percentage of Catholics among civilian staff had risen from only 12.3 per cent in 1999 to 14.4 per cent in 2004."
The Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, also known as the Patten Commission, was set up after the Belfast Agreement in 1998 to develop a framework for a police service capable of attracting and sustaining support from the entire community.