Sinn Fein's task will be to deliver a non-partisan police service in Northern Ireland if it takes the groundbreaking step of supporting the PSNI, Gerry Adams insisted today.
At the start of a series of debates within the republican community over the coming week in the run up to the special Sinn Fein ardfheis on policing, Mr Adams said he had made up his mind on the need for his party to get involved six weeks ago.
And he also told about 200 republicans who gathered in Toome in Co Antrim: "I am asking for your permission to enter into another area of struggle.
"We do not want to leave policing to the unionists. We do not want to leave policing to the securocrats." About 2,000 Sinn Fein members will gather in Dublin in eight days time to decide if the party should take the historic step of endorsing the police on both sides of the Border.
However the West Belfast MP told the audience in Toome that it was not Sinn Fein's intention to act as recruiting sergeants for the PSNI.
"We have clear knowledge of how bad policing has been in this state," the Sinn Fein leader said. "We also have evidence, very bad evidence in terms of the Special Branch and also the Special Branch of the Garda Siochana, the Heavy Squad and the Morris Tribunal.
"The police services require to be kept under democratic accountability. "Our job is to serve our communities, to make sure our communities have depoliticised and non-partisan policing.
"The job of Sinn Fein representatives is to make sure that happens."
Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern believe that Sinn Fein support for the police in Northern Ireland will be the deciding factor in any move by the Reverend Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists to form a power-sharing government with republicans at Stormont in March.
For some republicans the idea of Sinn Fein endorsing the police in Northern Ireland would be a step too far and the party is facing the possibility of independent candidates challenging them for the nationalist vote in the Assembly elections scheduled for March 7th.
Among those who could challenge Sinn Fein candidates in the election are Newry and Armagh MLA Davy Hyland and republican activist Gerry McGeough in Fermanagh and South Tyrone.
Hardline republicans have also in recent weeks threatened the lives of senior Sinn Fein figures including Mr Adams.
The Sinn Fein leader, however, this week offered to meet the leaderships of the Real IRA, the Continuity IRA and the Irish National Liberation Army in a bid to persuade them that his party's peace strategy makes sense and will advance the cause of a united Ireland.
However, his offer has already been spurned by Republican Sinn Fein leader Ruairi O Bradaigh. In addition to the public meetings organised by Sinn Fein, the party has also been involved in numerous meetings with activists on a local level across the 18 Northern Ireland constituencies.
Disaffected and dissident republicans have also held their own public meetings to enable people to voice their opposition to the Sinn Fein proposal to endorse the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
A Sinn Fein source said: "The public meetings over the next week are part of our effort to consult widely across the republican community. "That consultation includes the families of active service members killed by British state forces and also the relatives of victims of collusion."
More than 2,000 party members are expected to gather in Dublin's Royal Dublin Society in eight days' time for the special conference on policing.