Letter: The thin blue line is getting ever thinner
I have watched with some concern as the police presence in my area of north Shropshire has been subject to a slow dismantling based not on operational needs but rather due to cost.
We seem to pay more and more taxes and rates and get less and less from the public sector. I suspect what is happening is that pension payments based on large numbers of ex-employers or £1 million payments to re-employ ex-NHS managers in the same hospital is putting a strain on things.
Events in Germany just recently indicate that a vital requirement of policing is anticipation of events not merely reaction. Part of the problem is targets.
I would prefer to live in an area where there was no crime rather than a good detection rate. Yet what we are seeing is a philosophy based solely on reaction. Increasing levels of affordable housing and immigration from some countries where crime is the sole economic driver are making for an unpredictable future.
Boots on the ground please. I hear that West Mercia are looking at dismantling the PCSO system. This is pure madness. Does this mean my only police contact will be with a far distant control room. What's next? Subcontracting out to an Indian call centre?
I recall a time in London when walking to the Tube I would pass no less than five yellow boards each dealing with a different murder. Lessons were learnt. Not here please.
R Lloyd, Ellesmere
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