A new five-storey office building is equipped and ready to receive the North's proposed Northern Ireland Policing Board - if the two main unionist parties and the Secretary of State can agree on policing changes.
The building, at Clarendon Dock in the Laganside development area of Belfast Harbour, is temporarily occupied by the outgoing Police Authority of Northern Ireland (PANI).
The building has a top-floor meeting room, where the new Policing Board is expected to hold 10 meetings open to the public each year. There will be offices for each of the four main political parties participating in the board. By contrast, the board's predecessor had a small suite of offices in a 1960s office block in the city centre.
PANI moved into the new building but does not expect to occupy it for much longer. It will remain in place only until the new 19-member board is appointed.
The secretariat for the Policing Board will be expanded greatly and will act in liaison with the 29 District Policing Partnership Boards (DPPBs). These boards will liaise with local RUC commanders.
PANI was set up in 1970, consisting of a committee of 14 to 20 voluntary members. Its role was to provide oversight of policing. During its 31 years it was on several occasions at variance with RUC chief constables.
It was intended to have equal representation from both sides of the community but was largely shunned by nationalists, not least because its members were under constant threat of assassination from the IRA.
Two authority members and a civilian employee were murdered by the IRA. Mr William Johnston, an Armagh Ulster Unionist councillor, was abducted from his home and shot dead near the Border on December 18th, 1972. Mr Charles Eaton (42), married with four children, was shot dead as he arrived for work at a bakery in west Belfast on June 30th, 1976. The civilian employee, Mr Frederick Anthony (38), married with two children, was killed by a boobytrap bomb left under his car in Lurgan, Co Armagh, on May 13th, 1994.
Yesterday the authority issued what it expects to be its final annual report. It said the RUC had failed to meet performance targets in 10 of its 16 categories.
It praised the RUC's handling of "serious crime" but said it had not managed to meet targets in reducing domestic violence, burglary, vehicle theft and illegal drugs.