The chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland has said he is appalled at the government's "grubby secret deal" on IRA "on-the-run" cases.
He was speaking after the case of a man accused of the IRA Hyde Park bomb collapsed following what victims' families called "a monumental blunder".
Donegal man John Downey denied killing four soldiers in the 1982 bomb.
The case collapsed because government officials mistakenly told him he was no longer a wanted man.
Mr Downey's lawyer said his alleged offences had been categorised as one of the "on-the-run" cases that would no longer be pursued in the light of progress in the Northern Ireland peace process.
On Tuesday, a judge at the Old Bailey in London halted the case because Mr Downey had a letter from the Northern Ireland Office dated from 2007, assuring him that he would not face criminal charges despite the fact that police in Northern Ireland knew he was still wanted by Scotland Yard.
Although police soon realised they had made a mistake, the assurance was never withdrawn.
Anyone already convicted of paramilitary crimes became eligible for early release under the terms of the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement of 1998.
The agreement did not cover:
- Anyone suspected of, but not charged with, paramilitary offences committed before the Good Friday Agreement.
- Those who had been charged with offences but who had escaped.
- Those who had been convicted of offences and but who escaped.
Another 186 people received letters telling them they did not face arrest and prosecution for IRA crimes. The police, and Northern Ireland Office officials are checking the rest of the cases for further errors.
Victims' families said they felt "devastatingly let down" by what they called "a monumental blunder".
Unionist politicians in Northern Ireland are asking the government to re-consider the case.
NI Police Federation chairman Terry Spence said the news would shock the families of more than 200 RUC officers. He said they seemed "certain to be denied justice because of a scheme negotiated by the Blair government".
"None of us knew of the existence of this administrative scheme or what it entailed or the number of on-the-runs involved. There is a crying need for clarity as well as some honesty and decency," he said.
"The government owes it to police families to tell them, without any double-speak, that there is now no chance of them ever seeing justice being done in cases involving their relatives.
"There were 211 unsolved murders of RUC officers prior to the Good Friday Agreement and it looks from this grubby, secret deal that they are to remain unsolved."
Mr Spence said he felt angry, disappointed and betrayed.
"Why did it take a mistake exposed at the Old Bailey to shine a spotlight on this sorry mess?" he asked.
Conservative MP Laurence Robertson, chair of the Northern Ireland Select Committee at Westminster and, in 2006, a shadow Northern Ireland minister, said he would ask the Northern Ireland Secretary at that time, Peter Hain, who gave him the authority to bypass the true criminal justice system.
Mr Robertson said he felt Parliament had been treated "in a very discourteous way at that time".
"What I'd like to see is some statement made in the House of Commons preferably by the Attorney General," he said.
Northern Ireland's chief constable Matt Baggott said the Police Service of NI accepted the court's decision and full responsibility for the failures which resulted in this outcome.
The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland is to investigate the case.
The Hyde Park attack killed Squadron Quartermaster Corporal Roy Bright, Lieutenant Anthony Daly, Trooper Simon Tipper and Lance Corporal Jeffrey Young on 20 July 1982.
Mr Downey, 62, who was convicted of IRA membership in the 1970s, had denied murdering the soldiers and conspiring to cause an explosion.
He became Scotland Yard's prime suspect for the Hyde Park attack - but he was never extradited from the Republic of Ireland. He was described in court as a committed supporter of the Northern Ireland peace process.
In May 2013, he was arrested at Gatwick Airport while en route to Greece and charged with the murders and bomb attack. Mr Downey had travelled to the UK on four previous occasions since 2010.
But over the course of legal argument, he asked the Old Bailey to halt the prosecution - saying he had received a clear written assurance from the government that he would not be tried.
He cited an official letter he had received in 2007 saying: "There are no warrants in existence, nor are you wanted in Northern Ireland for arrest, questioning or charging by police. The Police Service of Northern Ireland are not aware of any interest in you by any other police force."
The Crown Prosecution Service had argued that the assurance was given in error - but the judge said it amounted to a "catastrophic failure" that misled the defendant. A trial would therefore be an abuse of executive power.
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