I HAVE noticed that when people complain about local crime in your letters page, someone senior in the police always answers by saying that rates are going down, what he should say, is crime reporting is going down.

Most people no longer bother to contact the police as they think it’s a waste of time.

Something I heard recently, sums up the situation very well.

‘Two years ago, you could recognise a policeman by his flat feet, now its his fat a…’ (Just a thought, but when was the ‘man’ dropped from title).

I am a war disabled 80 old pensioner. When I was a schoolboy in the 20’s, one policeman (PC Franklin) was responsible for a large area in Poole. No one ever questioned his judgement or answered back.

Of course, no one had ever heard of words like ‘trauma, stress, benefits, compensation, health & safety etc’. Things like human rights were hard, the only thing in abundance was common sense.

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