POLICING TODAY IS WARPED
AS a retired detective with 34 years police service I find myself in total agreement with Darryl Ashton (Your Views, October 12) and I am aware that other former colleagues share my exasperation at the current state of policing in this country.
Mr Ashton likens the service to the ‘Carry On’ films and he is not far from the truth.
The outrageous situation on Warner Street (Observer October 12 and 19), the most welcoming street in our town where honest independent traders feel under siege from low life and are obliged to demonstrate publicly out of sheer frustration, is a testament in my opinion to the warped priorities of today’s senior officers.
Many of them have never been seasoned thief takers but are composed of sociology graduates immersed in the dogma of diversity.
They constantly pander to every passing fad from painting police cells in customer friendly colours, encouraging officers to wear stilettos to highlight domestic violence and paint their nails in rainbow colours in support of the LGBT movement and modern slavery and other fatuous gimmicky and ridiculous schemes.
They have focused on cyber crime, historical sex abuse, hate crime and online abuse, neglecting traditional crimes and the reassuring presence of coppers walking the beat.
I ask myself how many of our foot soldiers are protecting the Hyndburn public at night time?
Recent statistics reveal staggeringly that 78 per cent of burglaries, the most intrusive, invasive and personal of crimes anyone can face, remain undetected.
In defence of the accelerated closure of our local police stations, the police hierarchy blame the lack of government funding and yet they themselves are delighted to accept sky high earnings and retire early on gold plated pensions to take up a directorship of a publicly quoted company.
In the meantime mind how you go and remember that old saying: ‘if you want to know the time’ in today’s current climate you will simply have to look at your watch. Jim Oldcorn Retired Detective Inspector
Great Harwood