|
|
Article: More officers must go back on the beat; COMMENT.
- Article from:
- Daily Mail (London)
- Article date:
- March 30, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Byline: TOM BUCHAN
WHEN I joined the police 30 years ago, the world was a far simpler place. It would be wrong to characterise those days as anything like the idyll presented by Dixon of Dock Green. But look beyond the nostalgia and it is clear there were values and practices then that should never have been allowed to decline.
One is the very concept of beat policing - officers patrolling the streets to reassure local communities and fight crime.
Beat policing is disappearing - and, while it has not completely vanished, it is certainly no longer a cornerstone of the force.
When I became an officer in the mid-1970s, there were about 20 ...