I write with reference to your article about former police officer Bill Sanson (The Argus, September 2).

Back in 1969, I was a 19-year-old probationer, undergoing my first attempt to join the police force in Brighton.

I doubt Bill will remember me but I certainly remember him.

When it came to policing, he set the standards junior officers such as myself tried to live up to.

There are several reasons I failed my first attempt to become a police officer. One is that I could not come close to matching the standards men like Bill set.

If we want law and order back on the streets, then men like Bill need to be listened to. He knows what he is talking about.

I was just a few months old when Bill first took to the streets as a police officer. In my childhood, I remember visits to Brighton and we played a game of who could spot the first policeman wearing their white helmets.

I have been lucky enough to spend the past year touring the US in a mobile home. I was amazed how safe and clean the country is compared with Britain. There are two reasons for this.

One is a high presence of uniformed police. The second is because of the "three strikes and you're out" policy. The prospect of a thirty-year prison sentence for a third conviction is a major incentive to give up a life of crime.

Keep speaking, Bill, one day the politicians may listen to you.

-Stuart Bower, Upper Beeding