MY recent letter criticising the police in Bury for spending far too much time "criminalising" motorists, and far too little time in tackling real crime, has been vindicated by newly-published Home Office figures.

These show that Greater Manchester Police have the worst record of any force in the country for the detection of house burglary and theft from and of vehicles. In addition, they are fourth from the bottom of the league in detecting crimes of violence.

The response from a Bury police inspector to my letter was that speeding is dangerous. However, he did not go on to echo the reported comments of his colleagues (Sunday Times, Oct 24) to the effect that "motorists and the middle classes who commit minor misdemeanours are easy targets".

This is something that most of us have suspected for some time but it is a quite intolerable position for the police to hold, given the level of crimes of violence and theft in Bury South alone.

Is it not time that well-paid police officers were taken away from hiding in roadside verges to trap motorists, and redeployed to remedy their disgraceful record in fighting real crime?

UNSWORTH RESIDENT

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.