Ulster Unionists have reacted with anger to a picture showing a police recruit wearing a badge honouring the Old IRA at a passing out parade in Northern Ireland.
The picture was published in last month's Police Gazetteand was taken during the ceremony in November. The Black and Tan medal was issued in 1941 by the-then Government to honour those who had fought in the War of Independence.
Fermanagh and South Tyrone Assembly member Tom Elliott claimed the wearing of the medal was offensive to police families who lost relatives following Provisional IRA attacks.
"It is highly insensitive given the history of the police and their respected role in holding the line against the IRA over many years here. It is also grossly insulting to the families of many policemen and women who were murdered or maimed by the IRA."
However, the PSNI said today that its policy allowed officers whose relatives had been honoured by the British government or any other national government to wear their medals at a graduation ceremony.
"It is an accepted tradition for an officer to wear medals which have been awarded by a state to a close relative on the right chest during appropriate ceremonies," the PSNI confirmed.
The SDLP's spokesperson on policing said that unionism needs to recognise that there are other traditions and histories on this island.
Alex Attwood said: "The PSNI have made the policy governing these matters clear. The wearing of this medal was proper. Unionism has to come to accept that there is a different history on this island from theirs.
"One expression of this history was the award of medals in relation to the Irish War of Independence."
"The Irish War of Independence was a very different matter from the legal, immoral and unjust use of violence by the provisional movement," Mr Attwood said.