Regarding Mr Griffith's unfortunate experience of a hit-and-run accident, I find the answer of the police grossly offensive from a service for which we partially pay through our local rates.

I find it difficult to think the same treatment would be afforded to our new chief constable, who I believe would feel as I do if he came to my surgery and was told his complaint was too trivial for me to treat and, besides, I had not got the time and would not be paid for something so inconsequential.

In the same way, I find it difficult to distinguish between a farmer shooting someone in Suffolk at night and someone being shot in the day in Hastings. By following up a hit-and-run car crime it may be one will catch up on a wanted runaway criminal, which would, of course, improve the crime figures.

I suppose one must not look back to the old-fashioned, meticulous, routine, attention-to-detail methods but to the modern, computerised control-of-resources menu.

-Dr J A Chamberlain-Webber, Falmer Road, Rottingdean