Cross-Border police co-operation "has yet to emerge from the dark ages", Prof Dermot Walsh, director of the Centre for Criminal Justice at the University of Limerick, told a conference at the weekend.
He said the adoption of the Patten recommendations on co-operation with the Garda Siochana will would go a long way "towards dragging the RUC out of the constitutional rut in which it has been stuck since 1922".
He told the conference on the Patten report that the adoption of the recommendations would enable the RUC to take its place as one of the primary components of the police service serving the citizens of the European Union.
There had been a serious collective dereliction of duty by the governments and police authorities in both jurisdictions with respect to police co-operation, he said.
"If there is one criticism that I would make about the Patten recommendations on cross-Border police co-operation, it is that they do not go far enough.
"Although they may be revolutionary in the context of policing on this island since 1922, the fact is they still fall significantly short of current developments at European level. It is likely that EU law will actually require Ireland and Britain to go much further in the very near future in the development of cross-Border police co-operation."
Welcoming the recommendations, he said they were a long overdue wake-up call to the governments on both parts of the island.
"Even if the political institutions and police developments envisaged by the peace agreement are not ultimately established, there can be no excuse for not implementing the Patten recommendations on cross-Border police co-operation".
Prof Walsh said the free movement of persons across State borders served the criminal every bit as much as the ordinary citizen. It was essential that the police authorities on either side of the political and jurisdictional boundaries develop methods of co-operation which would enable them to combat the transnational criminal.
"This is by no means confined to the fight against terrorism. Drug-trafficking, money-laundering, smuggling, vehicle thefts, road traffic offences and paedophile rings can all thrive much more readily in the absence of effective cross-border police co-operation.
"In the case of Ireland the problem is even more extensive as persons accused of a very wide range of offences such as ordinary assaults, sex assaults, thefts and criminal damage often take advantage of the Border to be one step ahead of the law enforcement agencies.
"It would appear quite obvious therefore that cross-Border police co-operation is probably more essential on this island that in most other parts of Europe".
Prof Walsh said that co-operation between the two forces had been enhanced as a result of the Anglo-Irish conference machinery. The level of co-operation today was much stronger than at any other period in the history of the two forces. Nevertheless, it still fell markedly below the level of co-operation which one might expect between the two parts of the island.
"As yet there is no regular procedure for joint investigations or even sharing of information on particular investigations. The closest we have come in this regard has been in the context of the Omagh bombing when, after labouring long and hard on their own separate investigations, personnel from the two forces eventually came together to review progress."
There was no joint disaster planning or exercises between the two forces, no structured co-operation in police education and training, no common database on criminal intelligence, even for crimes with a significant crossBorder dimension, and no programme of personnel exchanges between the two forces, he concluded.