I WONDER why our police chief has to wonder why public confidence in the police is so low? (LET, October 22).

Could it be because they are not doing the job they are supposed to do? -- which, to be archaic, is "the preservation of lives, the protection of property, the maintenance of order, the prevention and detection of crime and the prosecution of offenders against the peace."

To be fair, they are hampered by ineffective present and past Home Secretaries and a government more interested in third-rate acting on a world stage and political correctness than home affairs, with the courts appearing to give little support to the police.

A SEDGWICK (Mr), Lyndhurst Avenue, Blackburn.