Thin blue line

IT’S too easy to condemn our beleaguered police service for their failure to detect crimes (Mail).

I am retired from the Met and know many officers are dismayed that they can’t give all victims of crime the support they deserve.

Little wonder, given the fact that the ratio of police officers to public ranks towards the bottom of the league in Europe. France, with a similar population to the uK, though a larger geographical area, has almost 100,000 more police officers.

Figures suggest that in Britain 80 per cent of police work is noncrime related. The huge rise in mental health crises and missing persons are just two largely noncrime issues that occupy a lot of police time.

What about the increasing number of violent attacks on officers and the number of rest days cancelled, which have contributed to an increase in police sickness and resignations?

Added to this is the constant denigration, draining the morale of a depleted service which is all that stands between the law-abiding and anarchy on our streets.

CHRIS HOBBS, London W7. THERE is a shortage of police constables, but every police force has a commissioner, commander, chief superintendent and chief inspector, plus all their deputies, assistants and vices.

COLIN BULLARD, Stevenage, Herts.