READERS of this ‘paper will have noticed a number of high-profile criminal activities including murder which haunt Andover.

The police have stated that drugs, antisocial behaviour and speeding have been identified by local residents as their ongoing priorities, and the police has reacted well to the latest events with a sense of urgency spurred on by help from the public.

However, a recent long overdue but welcome briefing to Andover town council by the local community police commander caused me to look at the resources put into policing in Hampshire.

This does not make good reading. The situation in terms of police numbers in Hampshire is bad. Since 2010, Hampshire has lost 1,000 of its police officers out of less than 4,000 officers. In comparison, the Metropolitan police lost about 2,000 officers out of its 33,000. When we look at the number of officers per 100,000 population, Hampshire with 145 is one the lowest in the country with only Wiltshire and Staffordshire, but they do not have the same urban conurbations and more importantly the ports, airport and coastline which requires significant additional policing assets. Furthermore, Hampshire suffers a shortage of over 90 detectives which are key to police capacity in dealing with serious crime.

The public will then understand why the Hampshire police federation passed a no confidence vote in the Conservative police and crime commissioner for trying to divert £500,000 from frontline policing to his personal office.

This is a waste of public money when Hampshire have adopted a call centre model for low level crimes. The end result is that in Test Valley, 7.7 per cent of crimes were solved in 2017 which is lower than the national average of 9.1 per cent.

As community policing is no longer a realistic option, then the public has to step in and help where we can. Policing in England has always been seen as a community responsibility.

We also need to challenge the police when we are not happy with them. Information is key to effective policing, and the Neighbourhood Watch and individual reporting have an important part to play. In short, we need to help the police to help us.

Luigi Gregori, Charlton Road, Andover