Weekly column

Perhaps Lord Bradshaw, of the Thames Valley Police Committee, may wish to make further comment now he has had the benefit of reading Pauline Carter's correspondence?

It follows that if matters are not recorded correctly, there is not a chance that the figures he has responded from are correct.

While not suggesting that the Police Committee are deliberately given false figures, I, and I suspect, a great number of people in Oxfordshire would be happier if we could be assured that more attention could be given to the recording of the circumstances of crimes and their commission.

Such inefficiency as reported by Ms Carter deserves closer investigation as sadly also does the crime committed against her, and it is to be hoped that despite the many other matters requiring her attention, the Chief Constable ensures that this is done and the public receive some answers to the matters raised in your correspondent's letter.

Might it not be a good idea to have a Chief Constable's or Area Commanders' weekly column in the Oxford Mail and other newspapers?

In that way, the public could be assured that these supervisory officers are being made aware of the figures that are actually occurring, rather than receiving only what they want to hear or those below want them to hear.

Perhaps these worthies do not read the Oxford Mail, which always appears to try to publish both sides of the case?

The late Clem Burrows, Chief Constable of the old city force and later Assisant Chief Constable of Thames Valley, always ensured that he received a copy of the Oxford Mail daily and would have responded with alacrity to letters mentioned above.

CHRIS PAYNE George Street Bicester