Sir Ian Blair should consider that the problems of the police are the result of their own pride; their own hubris in deciding that they know best. I don't worry on a daily basis about being blown up now any more than I did in the 1980s. I do worry that I'm not being protected by a police force that can not carry its basic job of enforcing law and order if it involves any hard work.
David Evans, Rotherham, South Yorkshire I think Sir Ian Blair's problem is that he's a political animal. He is frequently trying to create the impression that policing has somehow to be different because of the recent terrorist attacks. The United Kingdom and Ireland have been subjected to terrorist attacks for the last four decades and London has had its share of "no warning" bombings. The only difference between the current campaign and earlier attacks is in the method of delivery of the device. The mechanism for the police to consult with the public already exists. It's called the Local Police Authority: there to set out policing policy for individual forces. Unfortunately the whole system has been politicised by government. We may need a separate force to deal with suspected and actual terrorism on a national scale, but local police forces should be returned to local control and police their areas in accordance with local wishes. In that way, some respect may be restored. We constantly hear that Sir Ian Blair is the country's senior police officer, inferring that he has some sort of authority over all policemen. He is the head of the Metropolitan Police and his authority stops there. He should cease meddling with other forces and concentrate on his own job. Richard Gill, Carlisle
We are very lucky to have Sir Ian Blair in charge of our police force in this country. The Dimbleby lecture demonstrates that this is a man who thinks seriously and deeply about the work and people that he is responsible for. A policeman will always be subject to criticism and - to some extent - ostracism in our community because we empower him as the guardian of our laws. These are just ordinary men and women just like you and me. They receive extensive training and are then expected to perform 100 per cent correctly - which I doubt any of us manage - while applying that training in some of the most difficult and trying situations imaginable. As a society, we are responsible for the police becoming a "race apart". There should be "bobbies" on the beat, walking the street, presenting a public face to the community, chatting to shop-owners, kids and mothers as they shop. A policeman should be an integral part of our daily life without the suspicion and fear - unless you are up to no good! Maybe then the job will appeal to those "middle class" intelligent and balanced individuals that Ian Blair is looking for. Keith Downer, London
The UK police have got themselves into their current problems. A police force should work on behalf of the people and when it does not it indeed becomes a race apart. A quick look at police in Northern Ireland shows the sorry state things get into when the community does not give its full support. Everyone knows that local community policing under local control provides the best base to knowledge of what is happening. Local police have, however, been removed and distanced from the very people who can help them. Far too many resources have been allocated to the cash machine of the average motorist, making more people despise police than help them. Perhaps we now need some kind of national homeland security force - better provided by the Armed Forces than the police - and leave the police to get on with policing. Frank Lyttle, Swindon
Just like many of his contemporaries, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair waits until near the end of his service before he has the courage to express his ideas on police reform. Had he voiced his honest opinions during the time he served in the middle ranks he might have encouraged others to follow suit for the good of the police as a whole, so that change for the better could have been managed in easily digestible chunks. Incidentally, he had an ideal medium to express his views in the letter pages of the Metropolitan Police Newspaper, The Job or in the national magazine Police Review. However, having experienced severe criticism in my annual appraisals when I called, like Sir Ian, for open debate in The Job (November 14, 1986) I can understand his reluctance to do likewise. John Kenny, Acle, Norfolk
Just as you don't tell your car mechanic of heart surgeon how he or she should do their jobs, police work is best carried out by police officers. What is it that makes so many people better, in their own estimation, at policing than the actual police? Clearly, the emergence of suicide bombings in the UK is totally different to anything the police have had to deal with before. How do you prevent someone who actually wants to die from doing anything without the use of major force? This is what Sir Ian is highlighting - there has been extreme criticism of the "shoot-to-kill" policy but what alternative is there? As regards "local control" of the police, what exactly does that mean? That someone who, for example, is elected to a local council post is in charge? Until the next election six months later perhaps? As has been said already, no one gets it 100 per cent right. When the police do get it wrong it's good media material. As to why recruitment of "middle-class" personnel is difficult, you only have to look at horrific shift systems, grossly unpleasant work, public opprobrium and a middle-class tendency towards experimentation with controlled drugs at universities to see why there are not many of the "intelligentsia" who are bursting to join up. Edward Johns, La Roche Derrien, France
Over the past 20 years successive chief constables have become lackies of the Home Office to the extent that we are now fully politicised and Chief Constables are accountable only the Home Secretary. Local Police Authorities have had their powers eroded by centralisation and that will become even more evident if the new strategic forces are allowed to replace our current system. Local accountability is becoming and will continue to become a thing of the past. The obsession of constant implementation of government-induced bureaucracy, chief constables with their visions for the future and endless snappy corporate tags have resulted in police officers spending more time in stations than out, and the end of proactive policing. The introduction of CSOs and the steady increase of their powers is an attempt to reverse this trend. Policing isn't as complicated as some would make out; perhaps Sir Ian Blair should not look at why the middle classes have thought themselves too superior to join the police but why most of our senior officers have sought to corporatise and create British Police PLC. In doing so they have turned what should be a vocation into just another industry. Name and address withheld
As a degree qualified engineer with a well-rounded and diverse experience of life, I made the decision at the age of 28 (25 years ago), to join the police force on a "fast track" training programme. Having passed the medical and the general intelligence tests where I met the people who would be my colleagues and peers, I withdrew from the selection process as the majority of my colleagues to be exhibited thuggish, racist and hedonistic behaviour that I found totally unacceptable and not in keeping with the type of policing that I had envisaged when applying. I actually wanted to join the police to work with people across society, and to help improve relations between ethnic groups, but this approach was laughed at by my fellow candidates. It is my belief that for the past 25 years, well educated and rational people have failed to join the police not because of snobbery or a feeling of superiority, but because many of the police patrolling our streets are deemed to be small-minded, thuggish, racist and bullies, and no middle-class, well-educated, rational people would want to be associated with them. Name and address withheld
As we slowly return to the bad old days of Dickens' Britain, a huge resentful underclass, presided over by an ever wealthier ruling class detached from reality, does Sir Ian Blair actually think that his inversely snobbish comments are helpful or sensible? Since everything has to be PC (politically correct, not police constable) these days, and the police service seek ever more inventive ways of attracting minority representation to join, has it not occurred to him that the middle classes are the group that falls into the gap? The middle class aren't attracted to the force because there is no real effort made to attract them to it. The broadly negative view of policing in Britain today, mostly fostered by the leading newspapers of the land, does nothing to help. Throw political correctness out of the window, do away with all those quotas, encourage people to join up because they want to serve, throw away all those nasty "equal opportunities" forms that do nothing to give you a sense of unity and everything to make you feel divided. After all we are all one nation. Then perhaps we might see some improvement on recruitment, with people coming to serve from all walks of life. And, bring back the bobby on the beat, make him part of the community. Sarah Marquis, London
I think that the statement made by Sir Ian Blair has got to be one of the most judgmental things to have ever come out of someone's mouth. How can one throw so many people into the same boat by implying that the reason that Britain's "middle class" doesn't wish to pursue a particular career is because they're a bunch of snobs? I can't believe that such an intelligent and well-educated man can be so narrow minded. I would suggest looking at other things that deter people from joining the police force; I can't imagine that being too difficult. Ola Marki, Paris, France
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