Real policing in Brighton and Hove is now almost non-existent, with our local constabulary preferring instead to concentrate on "image" policing, such as holding politically correct meetings to tell minorities how safe they are and PR stunts for the media, such as one-off blitzes on parking offenders.

Meanwhile, millions are continually wasted on those apparently indispensible computer systems that never seem to work. Surely it is time to take a leaf out of Health Secretary Alan Milburn's book and set up "foundation police stations". Directly accountable to the community, trimmed of their bureaucratic fat and paid according to the results they achieve rather than by the total amounts of spin generated and public funds misspent, such institutions would be a sure-fire hit with us long-suffering locals, even if they did have to be financed through a Public Fleecing Initiative (PFI).

-Ian Hills, Blackman Street, Brighton