• STEVE Adams (Victims to blame, August 10) complains that starkly-worded warnings from police seem to blame the victims for phone theft.

But blunt words may be just what’s needed to discourage the public from putting valuable items on a plate for fast-moving thieves. The sight of phone zombies walking very slowly along the pavement glued to a mobile device and oblivious to everyone else is already recognised as an anti-social irritant.

Such self-absorption makes it easy for the thief. Yet a modicum of care where and when phones are used, let alone investment in hands-free devices, could produce a dramatic fall in crime.

Although each Camden ward is supposedly allocated two officers and a PCSO, illness or leave can rapidly reduce the number to a single officer for weeks at a time.

Post the Johnson-May cuts of £500million, the thin blue line is already pretty thin, with another £400million cuts to come. Society will need to decide what it is prepared to pay for the police service needed to deliver the level of community safety Steve Adams expects.

Police would not be doing their duty if they failed to alert residents to danger, ways to avoid it, and reduce crime. If robust language is the only way to catch people’s attention, so much the better!

CHRIS FAGG
Gospel Oak Safer Neighbourhood Panel