Where are the town's police? (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Where are the town's police?

5:19pm Wednesday 20th June 2001 in

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I write in response to the article in last week's Borehamwood & Elstree Times with the headline 'The thin blue line is getting thinner'. I think the situation is much worse than the article suggests; the thin blue line has been reduced to just an occasional dot!

We have become used to calls to the police going unanswered: last Friday night we made an urgent request for help to the police at 9.15pm, with two follow-up calls as problems continued. The police responded with a car making an area check at 2am Saturday morning, four-and-three-quarter hours later!

Is it any wonder gangs of youths continue to run riot when they know even if the police are called there is little, if any, chance of them turning up?

The police are obviously understaffed and stretched very thin, but I question whether the resources they do have are being correctly targeted.

Our once pleasant area seems to be locked in a spiral of decline. The issue of policing this area should be the number one priority for all our local politicians before they find themselves representing an area famous for its appalling youth crime!

Name and address supplied.

*Hertfordshire Constabulary said it put double the officers for a normal shift on duty in Hertsmere on Friday nights, but the number of incidents sometimes meant they were unable to respond to every call immediately.