This morning three stories or issues are alive on social media that relate to the actions of police forces. The first I spotted was the news of the tragic shooting of two women in Bexhill last night. The fact that there has been an arrest and that the police are on the scene will not put the clock back for the two dead women, but hopefully it will reassure the local community that the hard work is underway to ensure that the community is safe and the crime is being fully investigated. Then I spotted a nameless columnist in the Uckfield Observer writing a letter to Katy Bourne who is the Sussex PCC, regarding the Police precept. I agreed with several points the person made, but their demand for visible policing, distinguishing this from seeing police officers in cars is unfortunately not something that will assist in cases such as the Bexhill murders, or indeed the work of the police more widely. If it was essential to have police officers walking the streets throughout Sussex last night, the number of officers available to focus on the crime would have been severely diminished and the murderer may well have been at large today. Finally the third strand came from a report in the Daily Mail of PCSOs and Police Officers in Longton, Staffordshire who were engaging with their local community and had focused on matters such as clearing the streets of rubbish as part of their campaign which was clearly focused on one local community. This had led to an outpouring of criticism from local people that they were not addressing matters of a criminal nature. Now the Daily Mail is a regular demander of visible policing so their hypocrisy stands out very clearly. However the fact that some people are not wanting visible policing is a true reflection of how society sees such issues. Some people would like to see a police officer walking along their road whenever something has gone wrong, yet most people are bright enough to work out that any paid official on their streets when there has been no problems is a waste of resources. The value of engaging with communities may not be understood by most people who read the Daily Mail but it is one of the purposes of PCSO’s and so should also be commended, but perhaps the people who have allowed litter and furniture onto their streets should be the real culprits of that story and maybe the MOS could at least have raised that point too!