A POLICE recruitment campaign is most welcome and certainly needed.

We all want to feel, and be, safe in our homes and communities and a compassionate and professional police force, or service as they prefer to be called, can help with this.

The problem with the campaign comes when you look into the details.

In 2010 Essex Police had about 3,600 officers.

Seven years later there are about 2,800 officers and far fewer PCSOs and support staff also.

At the same time the population of Essex is rising and with it demand also.

Cyber crime is increasing rapidly, there is an increased focus on domestic violence, and rightly so, and policing has moved from the frontline on the street to the front room.

Technological improvements provide opportunities as well as challenges but the reality is we have a police force which is struggling to provide the service they want to.

The Essex Police Federation revealed a third of calls from crime victims are responded to via a phone call or an e-mail. No burglary victim who calls to report a break-in is happy with an e-mail response.

This is not the fault of the officers we have but the problem is the officers we do not have.

Halstead is generally a safe place to live with a low crime rate.

The problem with this is when something does happen the police are not here to catch the criminals, or put them off committing the crime in the first place.

Smaller towns and villages need patrols so hopefully the recruitment drive will lead them to drive to Halstead.