No going back to the ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ era of policing

I WOULD like to respond to the letter by Ralph Lindley (The Yorkshire Post, October 18) relating to the present police service. In the days that Mr Lindley served there were standards to be maintained, but unfortunately over the years those standards have been diluted.

Hence the lack of professionalism shown and the often visible scruffy, unshaven turnout of certain individuals.

Ultimately the setting of standards is the responsibility of the Chief Constable and his/her supervisory officers, however they appear to be less interested in the public perception of their staff and more interested in their next career move. An improvement in the service can only be achieved by recognising the problem and then acting upon it.

From: Graham Borrill, South Cave.

I JOINED the police in 1985 after a spell in the Army when Mr Lindley was in the autumn of his own police career. We would have shared the same contemporaries... the old sweats and impressionable newbies and everything in between.

Mr Lindley seems to long for the good old days but it should be remembered that the past is a foreign country.

Society has been the driver in the way the police have adapted to the expectations placed upon it. Drugs and alcohol have placed demands upon the police like no other, along with a complaint-centred society where disrespect has been elevated to some serious crime when once it would be classed as rudeness.

Facebook results in police being bogged down with petty name-calling issues that simply didn’t exist years ago.

Expectations of a Dixon of Dock Green response does not fit with the dynamic environment of today.

Giving apple scrumpers a clip around the ear and the lairy drunk a poke with a truncheon is simply not allowed.

The problems in the police lie not on the shop floor but with those in charge. I firmly believe that we should get rid of the police and crime commissioners and just have a vote on who the Chief Constable is.

It may politicise the post of the Chief Constable, but they would be directly held responsible for their ability to run a professional and effective police service answerable to the public and not a PCC.

I also think it would allow officers to have a faith in their leader, which I am not sure exists any more.