The killing of attorney Rosemary Nelson by a bomb placed beneath her car in March 1999 indicated the crisis in policing in Northern Ireland. This crisis pointed to the need for the new beginning promised by the recently published Patten report on the future of policing in Northern Ireland. The murder epitomized the failure of past police accountability mechanisms in Northern Ireland. It also revealed the frequent tendency of government to deal with the edges of problems rather than to act swiftly and decisively to transform systems that have failed. Analysis of the development of civilian oversight of complaints against police in Northern Ireland indicate that successive United Kingdom governments have misread the extent to which government and police legitimacy has been disputed. Reform attempts have failed to render the Royal Ulster Constabulary accountable. Therefore, the newly legislated position of Ombudsman should receive adequate resources and every chance to enhance police practice and public confidence rather than being organized in such a way that it will fail. The analysis concludes that political will has never truly existed to make civilian oversight real and that the political will to change now needs to be demonstrated quickly and monitored effectively to prevent further killings such as that of Rosemary Nelson. Footnotes