Police in the North were urged today to be more proactive in loyalist communities to prevent paramilitaries from tightening their grip.
Democratic Unionist councillor Ms Ruth Patterson, who chairs Belfast's District Policing Partnership, said she was alarmed at the way loyalist gangs were dictating who could live in their areas.
And she called for the PSNI to assert itself more in loyalist neighbourhoods.
The south Belfast councillor said: "The police need to be taking a more proactive role in relation to policing Protestant communities that are really most vulnerable to being abused by paramilitary gangs.
"There have been a number of instances where there has been intimidation and you have a situation where sometimes the police are letting the paramilitaries dictate what is happening.
"People have a right to expect that they can go to their community police officer without feeling under threat and without fear of being branded a tout."
Ms Patterson said she was worried that paramilitaries were exerting too strong a grip on some loyalist communities and were effectively policing their areas to look after their own interests.
"These gangsters are policing their own neighbourhood while the real police are skirting around on the outside," she said.
"As a result good Protestant people are leaving Protestant areas and the paramilitaries are getting rid of them."
PA