Northern Ireland's outgoing Police Ombudsman lost the confidence of serving and retired officers, the Police Federation said.
Nuala O'Loan's seven-year term in office ends today after investigating alleged police collusion, killings and the inquiry into the 1998 dissident republican Omagh bomb which killed 29 people.
The Police Federation, which police officers, has been vocal in its criticism of the watchdog, and a spokesman said they were looking to the future.
"Mrs O'Loan has never been able to accept that at times she got things wrong," he said. "She gradually lost the confidence of the serving and retired officers during her tenure in office."
He said he hoped the new Ombudsman, Canadian Al Hutchinson, the former police oversight commissioner for Northern Ireland, would be supported across the community and by the police .
The watchdog was appointed as part of the shake-up of the police force recommended by the 1999 report by Lord Patten.
Today Mrs O'Loan told the BBC that her job had been difficult at times, particularly after former Royal Ulster Constabulary Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan criticised her investigation of the Omagh bombing.
"I was distressed by Sir Ronnie's response to the Omagh report. But a job has to be done, and you don't desist from doing a job because people are trying to divert you from the job by attacking you personally or attacking your family personally," she said.
In 2002 she published a scathing report on the Royal Ulster Constabulary's handling of the Omagh inquiry. The Real IRA was blamed for the massacre, but Mrs O'Loan focused on a series of alleged failings by police.
She revealed that, 11 days before the bombing, an anonymous caller gave police details of a planned gun and rocket attack in Omagh.
Michael Gallagher, whose son, Aidan, died in the blast, paid tribute to Ms O'Loan.
"She has had to pay an unacceptable price for the courage that she has shown and I think, when the final definitive history of the Troubles is written, she will be one of the few who held high office who have come out of this with extreme credibility," he said.