Star’s front row seat for sporting history
- Local newspaper week
Letter: Talking to public is part of policing
Wednesday 26th August 2009, 7:42AM BST.
Letter: The article in the Shropshire Star on August 21, about the police officer “trying to get back to grass roots policing” by holding a meeting, made me roll on the floor with laughter.
Although I admire his intentions, I feel sorry for the policeman and even more sorry for the public.
In the days when I was a police officer, the principle was to go out into the community, rather than the people come to the police officer.
Talking to the public on a daily basis was the basic way in which the police became aware of what was going on in the area. You the public were the “eyes and ears” of the police force.
There are now more officers than ever, but when did you last even see a policeman on the street and how many of you have spoken to a policeman recently?
Bill Williams
Shrewsbury
Sponsored Links
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
LIVE traffic updates
Road, rail and airport - latest
Our new, live traffic and travel updates service - check before you set out.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
Have to agree Bill, I split my sides when I saw the article. It’s almost as funny as the new Police Pledge.
Pledge 2 says “Provide opportunities for you and other members of your community to meet your Local Policing Team and representatives of other relevant agencies….”
Anyway the headline says “Talking to public is part of policing” but I don’t think talking did much good with those Millwall and West Ham fans last night – or perhap they didn’t attend the local bobbys meeting?
Report abuse
spotted one yesterday,zoomed past in a patrol car or was it an ice cream van/ufo.
Report abuse
This is true they are always in cars and they do not seem to talk to the general public any more, which is all very odd, but they get the cso to go out and talk to the public people wnat to see a police officer out and about talking to the public on the streets not at a village hall meeting and they do not wish to chat to a pretend police officer . Come on who ever is in charge communicate.
Report abuse
Police communicate??? The last daft idea they had on communicating was learning Polish – has anyone men a policeman who can Polish yet.
I’m afraid that talking to the community in english is way down their list, just in case they hear something they don’t like.
Report abuse
The only time I see police officers is when they appear in the paper in some staged photoshoot cuddling a kitten that’s been handed in or being given a commendation for arranging a football match for the kiddies, I have not seen a uniformed officer in my street in Shrewsbury and I’ve been here over 20yrs, looking from the positive side I suppose it means we’re fairly law-abiding around here, you won’t find any bicycles growing out of our front lawns.
Report abuse
Smythe: Very interesting point about how ‘busy’ they are. All I evre hear from them is ‘we are so busy with higher priorities’ and then I look on their web site and see the joke of the year – the Police Pledge, and then read on to see how busy they are organising kid’s five-a-side football with a bouncy castles.
Just why is such a high Police presence require? Are the Millwall Under 7′s visiting?
Honestly *tut*
Report abuse