SO, ACCORDING to reports in the media, a group of vandals calling themselves Tyre Extinguishers went around Brighton letting down the tyres of 200 SUV cars and not a single one of them was seen by a police constable walking his night-time beat.

And why not?

Because there was probably wasn't one single police constable patrolling the city at that time as doing so, according to "the experts", is not an "effective form of policing".

Try telling that to all of those folk who were inconvenienced, one way or another, by this idiotic behaviour, or the business owners who arrive at their premises and find that, during the night, they have been the victims of mindless tagging and graffiti.

Even during daylight hours shop managers suffer because thieves can simply walk into their stores, nick whatever takes their fancy and then run out, knowing that the chances of bumping into a police officer on patrol in the area is virtually nil.

The fact is that, in this modern day and age, visible policing has more or less gone by the board and the sight of a warranted police officer, out of a patrol car, is a rare as finding a needle in the proverbial haystack.

The car owners had their tyres let down; the rest of us have been let down by whoever took the decision to take our police officers off our streets.

Eric Waters

Lancing