What a pathetic and lame excuse for not having bobbies on the beat detailed in Chief Supt Lacy's recent comments in the Evening Press (September 18).

A survey earlier this year showed that nationally policemen only spent 17 per cent of their time "on the beat" (it could well be lower in York). Meanwhile crime in York soars. They may well have massive attachments to their belts as described by Mr Lacy - CS gas, radios, truncheons, etc.

However, if they go on like this the coppers won't dare go out of the station without automatic pistols. In many rural areas the police abandon villages and small towns after 5pm.

As a lad my small village had a bobby living in a police house locally. Now you are abandoning the cities Chief Supt Lacy!

A few years ago I performed a citizen's arrest on a youth shoplifting in York and was injured in the process. The police arrived in a Panda car (in

quite reasonable time - at least 15 minutes!), recognised him as a persistent offender and took him away.

As far as I and the shopkeeper know he was not charged - no doubt "a stiff warning".

After that experience I wouldn't perform a citizen's duty ever again. My brother told me (apocryphal perhaps) that a certain York neighbourhood watch district was abolished because the crime statistics there were ruining the overall statistics of such schemes.

The point is not whether such rumours are true, but that they exist. Chief Supt Lacy, get your men out from behind their desks and computers and on to the streets and on their bikes (pedal variety preferably). You might even consider the occasional stroll out yourself in full uniform unless you consider that too dangerous.

Paul Dee,

412 1st St,

Charlottesville

Virginia

USA

...I refer to the report on the police crackdown and incarceration of drug dealers (Drugs Battle Police Sorry, September 18).

The laws of supply and demand indicate that increased risk requires higher reward and reduced supply causes prices to increase, both leading to increases in crime as the drug addict will need to commit more offences involving innocent people in order to fund the habit.

It seems to me that, if anybody has to suffer, it should be the drug taker suffering the consequences of his habit rather than innocent members of the community. The logic of this suggests that the drug should be supplied on the National Health, with the opportunity of re-habilitating said users with a concomitant reduction in crime and the cost of policing the drug pusher - such savings will finance the health service commitment and lead to a safer environment for the rest of us.

Children younger than ten years old are reported as carrying the drugs for the pushers as their behaviour is currently unpunishable. These children are therefore receiving a training in criminal activity which fits them to become a liability to the community in later life. All of the above suggests that our present attitudes are contributing to the decline in respect for the law - particularly as a large minority of the population take Ecstasy tablets and smoke pot as a matter of routine. May I say that the only drug I use is the legally-approved alcohol which may well put me in hospital as a side effect.

Jack Smith,

New Lane, Huntington,

York

Updated: 09:01 Saturday, September 21, 2002