Here are some of your comments

I retired after 30 years in the police in 1997, convinced that public and police were drawing further and further apart. Gone was the personal touch: stations are closing, beat men have gone and Community officers with huge areas to cover. Vast amounts of time are spent investigating petty complaints against police, with no early cut off point. And the paperwork! Until the Criminal Justice system has a major overhaul, police paperwork will not reduce. Minor crimes and wrongdoings are often ignored due to the paperwork involved, and these are the matter which affect most of the public.
Terry Knights, Huntingdon

Those serving prison sentences are often there because they have had all the chances such as cautions probation and community based penalties. The reformers should look at the numbers of those people that have recieved chances to reforn and have spurned those chances before preaching that non custodial sentences are a panacea for reforming those people.
Ray Taylor

As a 32 year old car driver I have been known to speed, and have been caught and issued fines and penalties as a result. It is with this in mind that I please ask for a balanced argument - I hear too many people complaining about police harassing the motorist yet if I were to identify a social activity that causes the deaths of thousands each year, and injury to tens of thousands more we'd hear the same people appalled. The fact is we kill more people each year than 'criminals' and I think its about time we admit it.
Jason MacLeod

It is sad that in this country (and probably most others around the world!!) that we all live in the fear that we may be robbed, mugged, assaulted etc through no fault of our own. Myself and my partner are always paranoid when we go out if we have left a window open, or anything in the garden. Criminals have no respect for honest people or their property and belongings thinking they can help themselves to whatever they want when they want!! I was burgled a few years ago, all that was taken was a box containing photos of my 1st son and other personal effects. they even took the front door and hung it on their property with the wrong house number on it. Nothing was returned and all the individual recieved was a �50 fine and costs......where is the justice
Stephen Gibbs

Perhaps they knew better how to prevent crime hundreds of years ago. Why not 'outlaw' criminals? Removing the protection of the law from an assailant or thief who becomes a victim of theft or assault may make them think twice. Why not bring back something similar to 'the stocks' - public humiliation and ridicule is a powerful weapon. Why mask the faces on TV when criminals are caught in the act?
Paul Coventry

Surely one of the most effective means of inhibiting potential perpetrators of crime is the use of a simple and obvious deterrent. The majority of violent young street criminals are, I believe, indifferent to the soft and altruistic forms of retribution potentially awaiting them if they offend. They know that they will not receive the slightest taste of their own medicine. In my view the reintroduction of the simple short sharp shock of corporal punishment would be the most visible, and effective form of punishment, and potential deterrent in the eyes of apprentice criminals. Society has simply become too soft and nannyish - and has effectively given the younger criminal element the "whip hand".
Michael Oldrini

We residents want the criminals taken off our streets for as long as possible. Before most juvenile offenders are caught we have to put up with several years of petty crime, vandalism, car theft, nuisance and abuse etc. The Police do not seem able to do anything about it or maybe they are not interested. After reporting crime to the Police and getting no response local people just do not bother to report crime to the Police anymore.
Mike Kingsley

We all blame teachers for not giving their all; we blame the 'Police Force' for not reducing crime, yet we do not help the police and the community fight crime, we leave everything to the police force. May be if we start working together as one, crime will start to reduce. Help them help us
Manny, West Sussex

I'm very disillusioned about the police. After finding I'd been broken in by thieves, I rang for the police. They came two hours later, I got permission to secure and repair the front door. Two hours later a fingerprint man came and told me I shouldn't have touched the door as I'd destroyed evidence.
Peter Henley, Stoke on Trent

On CCTV surveillance: it's a bit like the rubber duck in the bath. You'll solve crime in one area by these installations - but just like the rubber duck - crime will surface somewhere else without CCTV.
Geoff, Nottingham

CCTV is ok but isn't it a form of spying and not an obvious deterrent? Bobbies on the beat are an obvious sign that police exist, but the vast files of paperwork keep them off.
Jeff, Worthing

How much police presence on the streets is captured in this system? None at all on this morning's shots!
Jack Weaving, Southampton

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