Police chief has got the perfect alibi – for failure
I recently read with absolute disgust the views of Giles York, the Chief Constable of Sussex. He says that officers shouldn’t visit victims of crime at their homes and should deal with them by email; and that a seven-minute wait for the public’s calls to be answered ‘isn’t long’. He gives the impression that he has effectively given up.
In or out of Europe, we need people with old-fashioned standards, not jobsworths who use political correctness to give them the perfect excuse for failure and non-performance. Their failings are unacceptable and affect us all. R. Sellors, Shaldon, Devon Giles York is a realist. But, unfortunately, people don’t want to hear that they can’t have the police forces that we had decades ago, when the opportunities for crime were fewer and there were fewer people in the country to commit them.
The Chief Constable is just trying to do his best with resources that are being limited by the Government, and with times that are changing. I commend him for asking the question ‘What is the best use of what I have at my disposal?’ rather than just going along with calls for doing things the way they’ve always been done.
He could just be a peoplepleaser and base his force on the public’s nostalgic views of the police from their youth, particularly in his county, where there are a large number of elderly residents. But he is being brave and facing the future.
If we shout down people who are telling it like it is these days, we will be forced to live surrounded by a cacophony of voices from the past. J. Benn, London
Once upon a time our boys in blue were the backbone of Britain, upholding law and order. But now half our police stations have been closed. The Government should be opening more, not closing them, and should also be putting thousands more bobbies back on the beat. If they don’t, people may be tempted to take the law into their own hands. David Courtney, Weston-super-Mare
After reading about our overstretched police last week, should the term ‘thin blue line’ be changed to ‘fading blue stain’? M. Busby, Birchington, Kent
Giles York says that police should use email to deal with victims of crime rather than visit them. But what if the crime is the theft of your computer? Derek Askew, Brackley, Northamptonshire