The Argus report (February 23) about the Sussex Police reaction to an internal instance of alleged racial abuse typifies one of the reasons why the reputation of the police is so low in public esteem.

All racial abuse is reprehensible but any reasonable person must have viewed this instance as one of the mildest and least serious.

For the police to call in an off-duty officer (presumably at overtime rates) and, because he was unfit to drive, send a car has to be seen as an overreaction and wasteful use of resources - not to mention the further high-level investigation going on.

Contrast this with the recent refusal to attend a road rage incident and other examples when police have delayed (or even failed altogether) to attend at burglaries.

It is high time they realised they are paid by public taxes and should get their priorities more in sympathy with what the public wants, without kow-towing to every whim of political correctness.

-Tom Ley, Warren Way, Tescombe Cliffs