HOW can we expect the public to trust and honour our police force when their leaders let them down so stupidly?

Last year, a police officer was sacked, but later reinstated, for being present at a private party arranged for him, not by him, during which there was sexual impropriety.

Now, we read (LET, March 17) of an inspector convicted of making indecent phone calls being demoted to sergeant and allowed to keep his job.

What is the message the public get from this leniency to one convicted of harming the public and the severity of the sentence to one misbehaving with no intention of causing harm to anyone else?

If the chief constable and her senior officers are not seen as worthy of respect, what hope do the poor 'shop floor' officers have?

PAT JONES (Mrs), Bridgefield Street, Hapton, Burnley.

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