In her latest newsletter the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner, Katy Bourne, said that her force cannot arrest its way out of the retail crime wave engulfing high street and smaller local stores.

I would like to see her expand on that statement in a future bulletin because my immediate thought, and I am sure that of just about everyone else reading it, was "why not?".

As the situation stands at the present time anyone can enter a shop, pocket whatever they fancy and then leave, knowing that the chances of a police officer being anywhere in the vicinity, to catch them in the act, is virtually zero.

As long as Mrs Bourne denudes our streets of police officers patrolling on foot, the retail crime wave that she referred to will continue unabated and can only get worse as time goes by.

Whether she likes to admit it or not, it is an extremely effective method of catching shoplifters. Always was and always will be. In fact, as far as shopping centres are concerned, it is the only way unless, of course, she knows of a way in which places like Brighton's Churchill Square shopping centre, and similar places through Sussex, can be policed using officers in patrol cars.

Eric Waters

Lancing