Officers battle with red tape and targets

In response to the Letter of the Day from M Tinsley (January 11), I would like to correct the following misinformation.

Ask any police officer what they feel is their main role and they will say to make the streets safer and to reduce the public's fear of crime.

Never forget that police officers live in the same communities, shop in the same shopping centres and send their children to the same schools as everyone else.

Decisions about targets and policy are made by senior officers, not the bobby on the beat who you are attacking. The Home Office sets the policing agenda which Chief Constables have to implement. Targets set by this Government have ruined our once great health service, have made our education system comparable with the world's worst and are now doing the same to the British police service.

On the issues of pay, police officers do not receive free dental or medical treatment, nor are they reimbursed for their prescriptions and eye care, unlike at least 85 per cent of the public. Police officers have to pay these charges in full.

Police pensions do rank above the average and are indexed linked from the age of 55, however, it is a contributory system with officers paying 11 per cent of their salary. Police Officers joining the service in the last 12 years no longer receive any form of housing allowance, nor is accommodation provided, yet they still needÊto ask permission to move house or take in a lodger.

The current pay dispute is not about the £200 officers have lost, it is about the manner they have been lied to and treated by the Home Secretary.

Police officers do try to give the public the best possible service, but this is often in spite of Government targets and bureaucracy and not because of any help they receive.

Paul Snape, Deputy Chairman, West Midlands Police Federation, Sheldon, Birmingham.