The Royal Ulster Constabulary will tomorrow be replaced by the Police Service for Northern Ireland (PSNI).
RUC crests will be removed from police stations across the North, the Police Authority will be replaced by the Police Board, and the first recruits of the PSNI, recruited on a 50/50 basis, will begin their training.
Speaking in Belfast yesterday, the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, said that he did not expect to lead the new force for very long.
"I am absolutely committed to these changes and an awful lot of work has been done to see the organisation is well-embarked on that process. But, as Tom Constantine, the Oversight Commissioner, has said, this is a process that will take perhaps 10 years. So it is right that . . . someone come in in the fairly near future to continue that process", he said.
"My deputy chief constable currently is involved in a number of competitions for chief constable posts elsewhere. I have two very senior assistant chief constables about to retire over the next four or five months. So all of that will have to be taken into consideration by the board in terms of determining exactly when I should be replaced."
The 47 new trainees, who are due to begin their 40-week training at Garnerville Police College tomorrow, have been recruited on a 50/50 basis from the Catholic and Protestant communities. As the college is only able to accommodate 48 new recruits at one time, this year's intake of 308 recruits will begin their training at intervals over the coming year - the last cohort is due to begin in March 2002.
Those recruits who successfully complete the first 20 weeks of the course, which involves academic and practical work, will become PSNI constables and will also receive a Certificate in Police Studies from the University of Ulster. Uniquely for a police force, none of the recruits will be able to become police officers without the university certificate.
At yesterday's press conference, the Chief Constable called on Sinn FΘin to rethink its decision not to sit on the Police Board. "The new police service will be distinctly different in terms of its composition, in terms of how representative the new trainees are of society generally in Northern Ireland. Throughout this training course there will be a heavy emphasis on human rights, and there will be a heavy emphasis on making us the sort of police organisation we always wanted to be."
However, he said that he did not envisage former paramilitaries ever becoming police officers.
A small number of the new recruits come from the Republic, according to the Chief Constable, but he said he could not go into detail. Nor could he say if any of the recruits had identified themselves as members of the GAA, which this week is due to vote on whether to abandon Rule 21, which bars members of the North's security forces from the association.
Sir Ronnie said that it would take "some years" before the overall composition of the police service reached 50/50. "What's more important than the number-crunching is to reach a position where everyone knows that they have equality of opportunity not only in terms of becoming police officers but, once they are police officers, in terms of the opportunities for promotion."
Asked about IRA decommissioning, he said it was " tremendously significant". He added: "The significance was in the decision by the movement to take the steps it took. That significance is disproportionately important to any quantity of material that was involved."
Sir Ronnie said that a museum would be established to house RUC crests and memorabilia. The force's 302 murdered officers would not be forgotten, he added.