FORMER Brighton borough PC Dave Rowland wrote an interesting letter on policing in the good old days.

For 18 months between 1969 and 1971 I served as a probationary constable at Brighton.

Dave Rowland is quite right – in the good old days, beggars and tramps were not tolerated and moved on. However, the methods used could be more brutal than he described.

I know of one case where a tramp was persuaded to leave town and not come back because two police officers set fire to his sleeping bag with him still inside it.

Fifty years later I can look back on myself as a 19-year-old at the time and feel ashamed that I laughed and thought it was funny.

I believe Margaret Thatcher did more than anyone else to destroy policing.

The second person was Theresa May, who removed police officers from the beat. She claimed that beat officers were not effective at detecting crime.

Beat officers can and do detect crime but that is not their primary function. The primary function is to stop crime occurring in the first place and keep general order on the streets.

The Madeira arches would not have been stripped of lead if uniformed beat officers were still patrolling.

Stuart Bower Hallyburton Road, Hove