Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has appealed to nationalists and republicans to sign up to policing structures in Northern Ireland in a bid to secure power sharing.
Mr Adams made the appeal before Sunday's ardfheis - at which the party may change its policing policy - in a four-page insert in daily and weekly newspapers published in the North.
The Sinn Féin leader, who has been involved in a week of public meetings finishing in Derry last night, reiterated Sinn Féin's primary goal is to achieve a united Ireland .
"We support civic policing through a police service, which is representative of the community it serves, free from partisan political control and democratically accountable," he said ahead of Sunday's special policing conference by the party in Dublin.
"This week's report into the killing of Raymond McCord jnr is further evidence of collusion and the subversion of policing by sinister elements. This has to be stopped.
"Sinn Féin is about delivering fair, impartial and effective delivery of the rule of law. What we don't support, and what we will never allow to happen again, is repressive, sectarian and political policing."
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have pinned their hopes of securing devolved government in Northern Ireland on the Rev Ian Paisley committing
the Democratic Unionist Party to power sharing with Sinn Féin if it signs up to support for the Police Service of Northern Ireland , the courts and the rule of law.
Dr Paisley has indicated that he will do so if Sinn Féin proves through its actions that any pledge to support the police is for real. But Republicans remain sceptical about the DUP's willingness to share power.
Although Mr Adams is advocating support for the police to test the DUP's readiness to share power, some republicans believe endorsing the PSNI would be a step too far. The Sinn Féin leader acknowledged that policing was a very difficult issue for many nationalists and republicans.
This, he said, was not because they opposed law and order but was down to experiencing a police service which had been one-sided. But he argued it was now a new beginning to policing in Northern Ireland would be an enormous achievement and he believed the time was now right for Sinn Féin to take that step.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan, whose party has been involved in policing structures for over five years - also published an open letter today calling on Sinn Féin to get involved.