Boost the police by hiring ex-Army heroes
So there’s a sudden need to hire more police, but we need to think about the type of recruits. In 1963, when I joined the Metropolitan Police, two-thirds of the station strength was made up of ex-Army, Navy and RAF. I had a World War II fighter pilot and a tank commander on my relief. The rest of the officers were men who came up through the police cadet scheme and became constables on reaching the age of 18. Direct recruitment of non-service personnel was low. The force had discipline, common sense and knew how to deal with violence. When there are so many good men and women leaving our Armed Forces all the time, we must ask why they are not snatched up by the police authorities? We must get officers back out on the beat, engage in stop and search properly once again and get rid of the rule that officers must break off a pursuit if there is a chance of a suspect injuring themselves or others. I am sorry for our constables in today’s force who carry enough equipment to need a donkey and appear to have one hand tied behind their back when it comes to doing the job. terenCe f. MattHeWS ll.B (Hons) —
ex-royal navy & retired Police inspector (injured), Upminster, essex. EVERYoNE, apart from politicians, realises we need more police officers. All this talk of ‘most of us never seeing crime’ (Mail) is utter nonsense. Most of us see low-grade crime daily and criminals are becoming bolder because they know their chances of being caught are so low. All the chat is of crime rates being at their lowest in decades but what about crime clear-up rates, which matter more? The old joke was that there was never a policeman around when you needed one, but now they’re just never around at all. The days of police who had worked an area for years and knew who the troublemakers were are gone. Now we are reduced to phoning an automated helpline and the chances of police arriving quickly are slim. Individual officers work their socks off but that can’t compensate for lack of numbers.
alex riCHardSon, Glasgow.