Police priorities

Scare-mongering comments by the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) are a truly shameful reflection on attitudes at senior levels within the Scottish Police Service (your report, 15 June).

To state that the only way of achieving necessary budget cuts is to ditch "universal policing" and deprive middle-class Scotland of proper police cover is grossly misleading, and sends out totally the wrong message to yobs and petty criminals.

The fact that Acpos should regard policing of "affluent" areas as "gold-plating" in the first place tends to suggests that chief constables are more intent on protecting the status quo of their cushy fiefdoms than facing up to the need for deep-rooted organisational change.

The unpalatable truth for Acpos is that there is plenty of "fat" within the Scottish police service, ample margin to achieve the mooted 10 per cent budget cuts, and plenty of scope to get officers out from behind desks, off the sick list and onto the street, without needing to cut back on policing standards.

MARK CAMPBELL-RODDIS

Pont Crescent

Dunblane