Sir - As the old playground joke goes, what shop never shuts? The cop shop.

Sadly this is no longer the case in Britain. Recently, I drove to the state-of-the-art police station in Abingdon at 5.15am to report an incident.

I rang the bell at reception twice and eventually the duty constable stood up. Finding the door to reception locked, he was forced to use an alternative entrance to greet me. "We're shut, Sir," he said, without taking any details from me.

Hypothetically, the purpose for my visit would have been to provide intelligence on a 'dirty bomb' plot in south Oxfordshire, but all staff were totally apathetic.

I was incredulous and left after stating that our police service is under-resourced. Both officers concurred.

Travelling around Abingdon at 5.15am is a uniquely alien experience and so I decided to make productive use of my time. At least Tesco was open so I bought milk and cigarettes.

I was led to believe that the primary purposes of a government are to protect and to serve, but this is clearly only textbook philosophy.

Our society is at crisis point with violent crime and antisocial behaviour at their zenith.

I've always felt that years of political correctness, weak sentencing and an obsession with individual rights were factors conducive to rising crime. I didn't realise that our policing was so inept.

Ian Roblin

Hadland Road

Abingdon