IN response to A P Cox's letter about policemen in schools (School bobbies policy extreme', April 20), this move is not a new initiative.

Procedures for dealing with young offenders started in London in 1954, but it was not until 1968 that it was decided to set up the first "youth and community section as an experiment in Eltham".

By 1969, districts of the Metropolitan Police had their own bureau.

As a serving home-beat policeman stationed at Wembley, and later as a juvenile bureau police officer, combined with work dealing with individual case loads or juvenile offenders, I and my colleagues, after a course at teacher-training school, were responsible for daily visiting schools of every denomination, state and private schools.

We taught subjects such as "never go with strangers" accompanied by a short film, the Green Cross code and the history of policing back to Anglo-Saxon times, as well as organising inter-schools quizzes, competitions, and an annual five-a-side knockout football competition which, as far as numbers is concerned, is still in the Guinness Book Of Records.

Over the years this form of communication proved invaluable, preventing most offenders becoming antisocial, criminal recidivists, and it was welcomed by teachers and parents alike.

I suggest in today's climate that installing policemen in schools with their own office is more of a financial move, an alternative to reinstating sub-police stations and/or police "Tardis"-type police boxes on location.

Kenneth Bowker, Vesper Walk, Huntington, York.