The centralising and target setting of our police forces has resulted in less not more security and crime prevention.
Recently a householder was driven, by lack of police patrolling and protection, to break the law by illegally purchasing a shotgun for his defence and of his much burgled property.
The police state they have not get the resources to pay attention to rural locations. They never will if they continue with central control and fewer stations.
To keep them viable, the local constable needs the backup of modern supports, not to be supplanted by them. Who can doubt if the police knew their farms and residents, plus any floating itinerants, that the scene of the Chief Constable of Norwich inanely advising farmers and others not to shoot but scream, would not have taken place.
He admitted that in the case he was advising upon the police would take at least 30 minutes to reach. Too late for the much burgled and at risk farmer from two hardened criminals. There has to be more local control to provide local protection for the public.
Centralisation has its uses as we have seen in most if not all the totalitarian systems.
We are constantly told that Britain is a democracy, that an Englishman's home is his castle, unless, apparently, he defends it in the absence of inefficiency of those (the judiciary as well as police) he pays to prevent its invasion.
Our politicians bleed us financially white whilst ignoring the age old lesson: without troops deployed on the ground it cannot be secured.
The same applies for our police deployment, to ensure safety in country as well as town. There should be no go areas or that impression given, from central control.
V Lester
Liskeard