Give people what they want

I feel strongly about what I wrote, and did not hesitate to put my name to it, however he didn't have the courtesy to answer me by name, he simply referred to "the writer".

I decided to conduct my own mini-poll on people's opinions of the community police support officers (PCSOs) asking 20 people their views.

One hundred per cent of these would rather have a few less, but fully trained officers on the street.

I am sure that Chief Inspector Hobbs would get the opposite result if he were to speak to 20 criminals.

The Chief Inspector says that the CPSO's are highly skilled at what they do, and I am sure they are, but they are not fully trained police officers.

Therefore they should be made distinctive as to the job they do.

Traffic wardens are dressed in green, therefore the CPSO's should also have a dress code of their own.

The only possible reason to dress them up to look like police officers is to fool people into believing that there are more real police on the streets.

The other parallel one can draw is with the TV series Life on Mars, where the different forms of policing are demonstrated.

In the 1970s people like Detective Chief Inspector Hunt perhaps used dubious tactics when arresting and interviewing subjects, which were considered unacceptable.

However, these days the pendulum has swung too far the other way '“ the police are now being buried under a mountain of bureaucracy.

It is rather poignant that the main character in the series decided to return to his police work in the 1970s.

Finally, the Chief Inspector accuses me of being ignorant of the facts. Well, all I know is that in the 1980s, my police colleagues and I spent most of the day out on the street, and not chained to a desk.

Brian Cowles

Freehold Street

Shoreham