How Can the Public Feel Safe When the Police are So Scared?

Yet the huge weight of equipment on view will strike most (especially city dwellers) as far from unusual. We are all too familiar with bulky body armour, guns and a range of modish extras that have turned the old-fashioned bobby into something resembling a High Street stormtrooper.

Thanks to pressure from the Police Federation (the police 'trade union') and the manufacturers of specialist equipment, the ordinary policeman or woman has been transformed beyond recognition - with damaging results for public confidence and even for their ability to do the job itself.

The balance between officer safety and the approachability of the British bobby is wrong.'

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